Former Central Bank governor now ‘disruptive economist’

In an email which announced the new blog, Rambarran said it is, “a space to share ideas for a better world through more enlightened economic policy. “ Rambarran said, “Posts are written in a simple style, convey alternative viewpoints to policymakers, and are usually delivered once weekly.” Central Banking, public finance, foreign exchange (forex) market and innovative financing for development are the categories which Rambarran deals with on his blog.

In a post about forex, Rambarran said Prime Minister Dr.Keith Rowley blamed “my ‘tinkering’ with the Central Bank’s foreign exchange distribution system for the creation of a US dollar black market and for the country living in the shadow of foreign exchange shortages,” when he responded to a question from the Opposition in the House of Representatives on December 7, 2016.

In his response, Rowley expressed confidence that arrangements are in place to ensure that small, medium and large businesses in the country are able to access the foreign exchange that they require.

The Prime Minister said, “We will still expect that the arrangements in place will permit small medium and large businesses to survive within the context of our circumstances.” Rowley said regardless of the size of the users of foreign exchange, “this conversation has to be rooted in the fact that there has to be an understanding that foreign exchange in TT is not at the level that it used to be.” The Prime Minister said people would be burying their heads in the sand if they did not accept that foreign exchange is being, “bought and sold outside of the banks in TT.” He attributed this to a tinkering in April 2014 under the then People’s Partnership (PP) government, “with the distribution of foreign exchange that first took us down the road to the creation of a black market in this country.” According to Rambarran, “The existing foreign exchange distribution system encourages inequality because it inherently gives undue preference to banks based on size.” He claimed, “The changes I made in April 2014 to the distribution system sought to make US dollars more widely accessible, both across banks and across their customers.” In December 2015, Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Stuart Young said Rambarran was free to challenge his dismissal as governor in court if he wished.

In a statement in December 2015, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said, “The Cabinet’s decision was based primarily on legal advice from both internal and external counsel, including senior counsel, who advised that the disclosure by the former Governor of the names of the largest users of foreign exchange in Trinidad and Tobago and the amounts of foreign exchange that they used was a breach of section 56 of the Central Bank Act and section 8 of the Financial Institutions Act.” Section 56 of the Central Bank Act deals with preserving the secrecy of matters related to the affairs of the Bank.

Any member of the Bank who breaches this section is liable on summary conviction thereof to a fine of $6,000 and to imprisonment for two years.