TT to top regional economic growth

In a statement yesterday, ECLAC said its latest survey of Latin America and the Caribbean projects a growth rate of four percent for 2005, an increase above the rate recorded for 2004 and despite the negative effects of natural disasters on the Caribbean economy (especially Grenada) in 2004.

Of particular interest is ECLAC’s analysis that "among Caricom countries, TT stands out with a projected economic growth rate of 6.3 percent, mainly thanks to the performance of the energy and tourism sectors."

On Monday, Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Minister in the Ministry of Finance Conrad Enill said a daily newspaper (not Newsday) report alleging that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was criticising Government for engaging in a spending spree was false.

Enill said the document referred to in that report "was the first draft of a discussion document" during Govern-ment’s recent IMF Article IV consultation and that document was filled with numerous inaccuracies such as the misconception that Government’s expenditure would continue in a certain direction because it went to Parliament earlier this year for a $3 billion appropriation to the $27 billion 2004/2005 Budget.

Enill said this is not the case and the $3 billion appropriation which Government sought parliamentary approval for was to deal with special circumstances.

A significant portion of that $3 billion was allocated to the Ministry of Health to deal with several pressing issues, one of which was provision of new equipment for neonatal units at the country’s major public hospitals, and the upgrade of those wards.

Enill said the final 2005 IMF Article IV report for TT will be posted on the IMF’s Web site in October, and on the Finance Ministry’s Web site as well.

Newsday obtained a copy of the last complete IMF Article IV report for TT, done on October 4, 2004, and published in January, and it clearly showed that the IMF had found no evidence of financial squandermania on the part of the Government.

What the report revealed was that the IMF was very satisfied with the Government’s fiscal management policies and it projected a period of "even more dynamic growth" for TT’s economy over the next three years.