PriceSmart and TTMA talk forex shortage

Newsday asked if PriceSmart has therefore switched to more affordable brands, thereby requiring less forex.

Mahabir said the company continues “to work with our relationship banks to source tradeable currency that we can use to maintain a level of imported merchandise and stock the range of imported products most frequently purchased by our members.” Newsday also spoke to President of the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers Association (TTMA), Dr Rolph Balgobin who pointed out that because “manufacturers are net earners of foreign exchange, many of our members actually have sufficient forex.

Several however, do not, and many of these have been exporting at thin margins to earn the foreign currency, trying to tighten collections, buy forex upfront, hedge, et cetera.” Regarding the start of the US dollar shortage, Balgobin said manufacturers “would have seen the oncoming recession and attendant foreign exchange challenges early. Our sensitivity to forex availability for raw material, and the attendant impact it has on our businesses, means that we would have seen this trend accelerating in 2014 and 2015.” Asked how long after that did the TTMA first notice a serious issue with supplies of the other currencies, he told Newsday, “at least a year but the issue was building for just over a year.” Balgobin added that the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of TT have been “very open in dealing with the problem.”