Sahadeo sees more growth in 2006

Sahadeo told her audience that the TT economy recorded its 11th year of growth in 2004 with a 6.2 percent expansion, and the nation’s "uninterrupted economic growth" is forecasted to continue well into the next fiscal year. "In TT, real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth has surpassed six percent per annum since 2002 and is projected to reach a double-digit figure in 2006, with a 50 percent increase in natural gas production," she declared.

The minister said Atlantic LNG’s Train IV and several other downstream energy projects (such as the proposed aluminium smelter in Chatham) which are in various stages of development at this time, "will support continued strong growth and can mitigate the impact of lower energy prices in the future."

Sahadeo said 60 percent of Government’s surpluses are being placed in the Interim Revenue Stabilisation Fund which now stands at $3.9 billion and "is expected to reach 5.3 percent of GDP at the end of this fiscal year." She added that "the pending legislation governing the Revenue Stabilisation Fund will set the parameters for its use in tempering the fiscal impact of changes in the energy sector."

Explaining that Government understands that rapid global economic developments require the State to play a regulatory but catalytic and facilitating role (to encourage the activities of the private sector), Sahadeo said "tremendous growth" is being witnessed in the small business sector through Government’s efforts to nurture the development of an entrepreneurial spirit within the population through the efforts of the National Entrepreneurship Development Company (NEDCO) and the Business Development Company BDC. She also said that as Government pursues its strategies of economic diversification, its attention is focused on transforming the manufacturing and service sub-sectors of the economy "into the new engines of growth" for TT.