Finance Minister Colm Imbert has described as ‘misleading,’ the claims by a local economist in yesterday’s Guardian in response to a projection by the International Monetary Fund.
In the article, economist Dr Roger Hosein warned that the economy is in dire straits, although the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected economic growth of 2.1 per cent for T&T this year.
Hosein said while he had great respect for the IMF’s projections, he believes the agency is being “overly optimistic” about T&T’s economic outlook.
However, Imbert responded via a Tweet, stating briefly “that in an attempt to discredit the IMF’s forecast of growth in the T&T economy in 2021, an ‘expert’ falsely claimed that “our economy is 40 per cent lower now than in 2007, when in fact our GDP is eight per cent higher now than then.”
Also refuting Hosein’s comment was Minister in the Ministry of Finance Brian Manning.
Manning also tweeted on the article, saying “Convenient use of IMF figures seem to be the order of the day.”
In an interview with GML, he added that the Finance Minister had made public statements that the economy is in a critical state, “But the Minister has been doing a lot of work to really set the stage for growth, coming out of the COVID situation.”
Manning added: “Several economists, not specifically Dr Hosein, have used the IMF’s figures to criticise the Government. Now that the IMF has said something positive on our growth prospects going forward, they’re questioning the IMF.”
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