EXPORTS are at record levels, the country's figures are great, and exciting new businesses abound in TT, effused Trade Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon, in her budget contribution on Tuesday in the House of Representatives.
She boasted of non-energy GDP up by 2.2 per cent, private sector credit up by 6.6 per cent, growth up by two per cent, and GDP per capita from US$15,000 to US$19,500 and heading to US$20,000 by year-end. Inflation is 5.09 per cent, reserves are US$6.8 billion and debt-to-GDP 70 per cent.
Amidst rising food prices locally and globally, Gopee-Scoon noted declines in the FAO food index from July to August for cereals, oils, dairy, meat and sugar.
Further, global freight costs will fall by 20-30 per cent, then rise slightly.
"It is the Government’s expectation that local importers and distributors of food will seek to pass on cost savings derived internationally to local consumers, as derived."
The Government had tried to help by zero-rating basic food items and suspending the CET, while supplying more foreign exchange to manufacturers and importers.
Boasting of "consumers buying local", she said over two years, imports fell of eggs (down 70 per cent), tomato sauce (down 30 per cent) and cereals (down 10 per cent).
Saying food security and fewer food imports were her top priorities, she boasted of 350 exhibitors, 52 business meetings and 79,000 visitors at the recent Agri Expo.
She said 20,000 SMEs employed 200,000 people and earned 30 per cent of TT's GDP. These had benefited from $4 billion in VAT refunds, plus loan and grant schemes. The Guaranteed Loan Programme for SME's worth $196 million has helped 900 businesses, the Long Term Loan Guarantee Scheme for SMEs is worth $500 million, the Grant Fund Facility has shared $5.25 million among 25 businesses (such as printing, cocoa processing, agro-processing, packaging making, fish processing, cosmetics, chemicals, software and financial services)
Gopee-Scoon hailed the SME Mentorship Programme, the SheTrades Hub serving 40,000 women, and the ScaleUpTT business accelerator programme for SMEs with yearly revenues of $2-30 million. She boasted of TT's healthy trade balance with the world, noting uptick from 2020-2021 to 2021-2022 of total exports from $46 billion to $72 billion.
This included energy exports up from $32 billion to $57 billion, with non-energy exports slightly up from $14.58 billion to $14.71 billion.
TT's trade surplus rose from $11 billion to $34 billion, mainly due to energy exports. She hailed high non-energy exports.
[caption id="attachment_978979" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Head of the Nestle Anglo-Dutch Caribbean region, Josue De La Manza, from left, Trade and Industry Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon and Agriculture Minister Kazim Hosein sample Natures Heart almond milk at the launch of a factory line of plant-based products at the Valsayn facility on Friday. Photo courtesy Nestle[/caption]
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