Enill: Bumper Budget coming

In giving an analysis of TT’s economic growth from 2000 to 2005, Enill revealed that draft legislation to formalise the fund will be taken to Cabinet next week and it should be laid in Parliament shortly thereafter.

The minister said all the economic data from 2000 to 2005 shows the national economy is in good health, growing at an average of 7.7 percent annually and is now “one of the fastest growing in the Western Hemisphere.” He said public sector debt has fallen steadily from 2000 to 2005 with that debt now standing at 40.7 percent.

On the issue of inflation, Enill said TT’s inflation rate stood at 6.8 percent as of 2005 and most of that was headline inflation due to high food prices which have increased by 23 percent within recent times. The minister said Government is now in the process of implementing measures that could reduce food prices and considerably lower the levels of headline inflation in TT.

Stating that the economy was on solid ground thanks to positive growth in the energy sector, Enill said Government is making good progress in reducing the non-energy deficit through the stimulation of activity in the non-energy sector.

On projections for the 2006-2007 Budget which will be presented in Parliament between September and October, Enill said major allocations will again go to areas such as education, health, national security, housing and infrastructure.

Noting that Government allocated 20 percent in previous budgets to the social sector, Enill hinted that this pattern would continue in the next budget with the aim of empowering vulnerable persons through a variety of training initiatives. He added that many of those inititatives such as the Multi-Sector Skills Training (MUST) Programme and On the Job Training (OJT) programmes have helped in this regard.

He also revealed that Government is currently working with the European Union’s Poverty Reduction Programme to undertake a poverty survey in TT and this should be completed in fiscal 2006.

Enill said much maligned programmes such as CEPEP and URP have respectively resulted in 6,240 persons and 121,117 persons being employed in fiscal 2005. The minister also gave the assurance that special purpose companies created to expedite the execution of public projects were working well and had sufficient checks and balances.