Enill: Govt avoiding mistakes of the past

Minister in the Ministry of Finance Conrad Enill yesterday insisted that Government was not making the mistakes of the past — ie spending money without increasing the productive base or planning for the future. Enill was responding to critics of Government’s expenditure pattern at a post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall. Economists, the business community and the Opposition have warned Government about going down the road of the 1970s and 1980s.

However, Enill claimed that there were important differences between then and now — 1) that the energy sector then was not as diversified at that time as it is now; 2) that there was growth in the rest of the economy and 3) that additional revenues were being put in the Revenue Stabilisation Fund. He said Government had gone further and was now working on legislation that would ensure that access to that fund was not easy. He said  IMF’s analysis, which is done annually, had shown that Government was moving in the right direction and doing the right things. Enill asked what was Government expected to do with the country’s resources if it found  that some people were unable to make the transfer from poverty into sustainable jobs. Enill said when Government came to power it recognised that there were significant pockets of poverty and it had to pay attention to the problem.

He said the empirical data showed that the economy had expanded, though agriculture remained a challenge and there were still things to be done in the manufacturing sector. Enill said the high cost of food was a concern. He said factors responsible for this were hurricane Ivan — which interfered with the capacity of neighbouring Caricom countries to produce the food (for importation into Trinidad and Tobago); bad weather in this country and expansion in India and China which has affected the demand for steel and other products associated with the construction industry. He said Government had taken steps to mitigate the impact of this on the more vulnerable persons in society.