No return to old forex system, says Imbert

In December 2015, the Cabinet fired Rambarran as governor. In a statement then, Imbert said, “The Cabinet’s decision was based primarily on legal advice from both internal and external counsel, including senior counsel, who advised that the disclosure by the former Governor of the names of the largest users of foreign exchange in Trinidad and Tobago and the amounts of foreign exchange that they used was a breach of section 56 of the Central Bank Act and section 8 of the Financial Institutions Act.”

In response to another question from Naparima MP Rodney Charles, Imbert said he spoke about the exchange rate in the Mid-Year Review last April. “It is therefore incorrect to speak about a weakening of the exchange rate.” Imbert reminded MPs that he told the country at that time that, “revenues from petroleum which is our primary source of foreign exchange have declined by 92 percent.

At Thursday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s, Imbert said consideration is being given toward shifting the direction of foreign exchange from importers of manufactured goods to local manufacturers who are exporting goods to other markets. He reiterated that the US$251 million withdrawn from the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund (HSF) would be used to partially fund projects in the 2017 Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP). On Thursday, Imbert also said plans to split the HSF into separate heritage and stabilisation components were proceeding apace.