FINANCE MINISTER Colm Imbert is convinced that not only has the economy been growing consistently over the past three years but people are now feeling the positive effects of that growth.

He was responding to questions during a panel discussion at the TT Manufacturers' Association (TTMA)'s annual post-budget discussion at the Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain on Tuesday, the day after the 2024/2025 budget was laid in Parliament.

'I do think that quite a few people feel that things are better now than they were five or seven years ago,' he said.

The minister, on Monday, gave a five-hour and thirteen-minute presentation on the budget for the fiscal year ending on September 30, 2025.

He said, while responding to other questions, that most of the money spent in the budget will go to providing free services such as education and healthcare, highly subsidised water and electricity and public transportation.

He said the $7.5 billion allocated to education will affect close to 300,000 students who are either in primary or secondary school or are pursuing higher education.

'We have 250,000 people in schools as far as I can recall and about 15,000 people at UWI and then if you add UTT and the other private institutions, then you will have about 300,000 people actively engaged in education every school day. That is what that $7.5 billion is spent on,'

He said it was not always that way, as in the 1950s, only 400 people had access to government-supported education.

'There was a system where you had to compete. If you were not in that 400, you would have to pay to go to school.

'One of the things that this administration has done, in all of its iterations, is introducing the idea of free education at the primary level and at the secondary level.'

He said the PNM Government has brought the tertiary level participation of secondary school students from 11 per cent in 2004 to 60 per cent in 2009.

On government spending, Imbert said the growth was one of the reasons why the government could increase expenditure from about $50 billion, which was the trend during the leaner periods and covid19, to $59 billion this year.

'We had a very difficult period between 2016, leading up to 2019 and into covid19, where we had to keep expenditure in the $50 billion range.

'Some years, it was $49 billion and $48 billion. That was a big drop from the $60 billion or $62 billion in 2014.

'This year it was $59 billion. That was a great increase in government expenditure for this year in terms of goods and services, wages and salaries.'

He explained that if he had followed the advice of some and reduced expenditure to match revenue, it would have resulted in massive retrenchment, removal of subsidies, increases in utility prices and the removal of free services.

He said this year, the national deficit is $7 billion, two billion less than was projected in the minister's mid-year review.

For 2025, the government is looking at a deficit of $5.5 billion.

He said until natural gas production rebounds in 2027, th