Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar says Trinidad and Tobago is not in a recession and is in fact ‘in progression’.
‘I want to say very clearly, very confidently, unequivocally, to citizens who contribute to our nation, Trinidad and obago is not standing still. Trinidad and Tobago is in progression,’ Persad-Bissessar said as she contributed to the debate on the TT$63.3 billion (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) budget presented by Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo, a week ago.
Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles last Friday described the budget as ‘deceitful, deceptive, and destructive’ and that the oil rich-twin island republic has entered into a recession.
‘Mr. Speaker, what makes this worse is that this is a recession caused by the UNC (United National Congress) Government and its failed policies, which are anti-people, anti-business, and anti-investment.’
Beckles said that the government had increased electricity rates, introduce a series of new taxes all designed to make doing business in Trinidad and Tobago much more difficult.
‘The Minister of Finance, either intentionally, or out of dereliction of duty, failed to present the true state of the economy. Instead, he attempted to deceive,’ she said, quoting from an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report in 2024, ‘the last Article 4 Consultation’ under the previous People’s National Movement (PNM) government.
She said that the report had stated ‘For the first time in a decade, Trinidad and Tobago is undergoing a gradual and sustained economic recovery,’ with Beckles saying that it exposes ‘ the deceit that the Minister of Finance continues to parrot about who crashed the economy.
But Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar told legislators that ‘others would have you believe we are in recession, make it very clear we are in progression,
‘I’ll tell you why. This is not Kamlal saying it or one of my MPs saying it, listen to people. The IMF, one of the world’s most respected independent financial institutions, has projected positive economic growth for Trinidad and Tobago,’ Persad-Bissessar said, insisting that the numbers are solid.
‘ It is in the IMF’s May 2026, in the IMF’s May 2026, Article 4 report, the IMF projected growth of 0.8 per cent in 2026, that’s this year, the last fiscal gone by, accelerating to three per cent in 2027, and averaging approximately 3.5 per cent in 2028 and 2029.
‘Where is recession in that? That is progression, that is progression. These are the projections of an internationally recognised institution. These are the figures manufactured for political convenience. This latest report…,’ she said.
Persad-Bissessar during her presentation accused the former People’s National Movement (PNM) administration of leaving behind substantial debt obligations when they left office last year
She said adjusted government debt rose from TT$75.38 billion in fiscal 2015 to TT$140.58 billion in fiscal 2024, an increase of 86.5 per cent and that her administration has already borrowed more than TT$21 billion to refinance inherited debt, with another TT$70 billion falling due over the next five years.
She also rejected allegations that her government was engaging in a fire sale of State assets, saying ”I heard one of them say it’s a fire sale. Nothing is further from the truth’.
She defended plans by her government to divest loss-making state enterprises, questioning why taxpayers should continue subsidising companies that consistently recorded financial losses.
She identified the Magdalena Grand Beach and Golf Resort, in Tobago, the Trinidad Hilton and the Caribbean Dockyard and Engineering Company (Caridoc) among the entities earmarked for divestment, noting that the Magdalena Grand had accumulated losses of TT$240 million and that government had been asked to provide an estimated TT$400 million for upgrades at the Hilton.
‘No government should be running hotels,’ she told legislators.
But Beckles has maintained the opposition position, saying that government during the debate have not been able to properly discuss the positive developments since coming to office in April last year.
She said their presentations were devoid of details on development for the country ‘because because all they did today, they used today to drop bomb after bomb after bomb. hat is what they came to do.
‘You would think that the Minister of Youth and all the other ministers that spoke today would come to us and say, Listen, I got an allocation in the last fiscal year for X, this is how I spent it,’ Beckles told a news conference after the opposition staged a walkout of the Parliament on Monday following the allegations made by the government ministers against PNM members.
The debate is continuing.