Trinidad economy remains pressured

“Liquidity of the financial sector was relatively comfortable. Commercial banks’ excess reserves at the Central Bank averaged TT$3,441 million in April 2017 and hovered around this level for much of May,” the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) the Trinidad and Tobago central bank in commenting on the country’s economy stated recently.
The MPC went on to state that “credit growth remains slow with credit granted by the financial system to the private sector increasing by 2.6 percent (year-on year) in March 2017 compared with 3.2 per cent a month earlier, with loans to businesses actually declining by 0.7 per cent in the year to March.”
“Oil production in the first quarter of 2017 was higher than over the previous three quarters, but 1.6 per cent lower than in the first quarter of 2016. Evidence of a pick-up in energy exploration activity was visible which is expected to bolster output in the short to medium term. Natural gas production output in January to March fell by 8.4 per cent than the period in 2016. Other available non-energy statistics suggest that construction and distribution activities were very subdued in early 2017,” the MPC stated.
“Inflation remained low with the 12-month headline rate in March 2017 at 2.8 percent, up from 2.6 per cent in the previous month and close to the 3 percent averaged over the past 6 months. Core inflation was 2.6 per cent (year-on-year) in March. The weak inflationary pressures were also reflected in the indices of producer prices and building material prices (an increase of 2.8 per cent and a decline of 0.6 per cent on a 12-month basis respectively, in March 2017)” the Committee observed.
In its deliberations, the MPC noted that the domestic economy continued to need support toward recovery, and that the risk of overheating did not appear imminent in light of the recent information on inflation. At the same time, the narrowing of interest differentials between Trinidad and Tobago and the US has implications for the balance of payments. In light of these factors, the MPC decided to maintain the Repo rate at 4.75 per cent.