Imbert: US$2.5 billion forex lost

Imbert was responding to a question in the House of Representatives.

Imbert said the consistent decline in the supply of forex over the last three years was connected to the sustained slowdown in the local energy sector.

As a result of this, he said, “The domestic foreign exchange market is in disequilibrium, as purchases by the authorised dealers are insufficient to meet customers’ demand.” He said the purchase of forex by dealers and its sale to customers between January and April 2016 were US$ $1,535,000 and US$1,803,000 respectively.

For the same period this year, he said the purchase and sale of forex were $1,139,000 and $1,734,000 respectively.

Noting that the Central Bank intervenes in the market on a regular basis to provide additional liquidity, Imbert said the bank had provided US$675 million between January and April. He said this was a substantial increase from the US$340 million it injected into the system for the same period last year.

Imbert said the bank has also introduced additional mechanisms to provide additional liquidity, such as augmenting the available supply of US banknotes to authorised dealers to meet their “walk-in” customers’ demands, and another mechanism allowed dealers to close trading facilities which were extended to satisfy client demands.

Imbert did not support a claim from Caroni East MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh about foreign fastfood franchises closing in TT if they are unable to access sufficient forex.

However, referring to the closure of Denny’s restaurant in Maraval, Imbert – who is the MP for Diego Martin North/East – said, “I noticed that one of the restaurants in particular...

the arrangement between that fast-food franchise and the local operator was that they must import foreign food and use foreign food only in the restaurant.

“While I deeply sympathise with the franchise holder,” he said, “I think it may create a movement towards the use of local