Contact_Vol19No1_March2019_WEB full and final

Business Environment
pillar of any future fiscal package, with the role of the non-energy sector taking
on even greater importance in stabilising and growing the economy. Currently,
government is intensely focused on recovery of output in the energy sector,
with some success, though the volatility of global market prices will create a
significant headwind in this regard.
Trinidad and Tobago: Growth rate of real gross domestic product (GDP)
from 2012-2022 (compared to the previous year)
2.7%
1.71%
1% 0.88%
1.56%
2.13%
1.24%
2012 2022
-1.75%
-1.19%
-2.6%
-6.08%
Source: ©Statista 2019 – The Statistics Portal
The intensity of government’s focus on the recovery of the energy sector
must be replicated across the non-energy sector. The creation of an enabling
environment that facilitates new and sustainable growth within the non-energy
sector is therefore critical if we are to avoid:
• persistent fiscal deficits and rising public debt
• persistent balance of payment deficits and a weakened TT dollar
• increasing rates of unemployment
• low investor and consumer confidence
• an economy perpetually confined to zero to low growth outcomes
• lost generations of young citizens.
Trinidad and Tobago’s economy comprises four critical sectors: energy,
services, manufacturing and agriculture. Of these, services and energy have
been the major contributors to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
In 2008, Trinidad and Tobago had an estimated GDP (at constant 2000
prices) of TT$93,024.5 million, with the services and energy sector accounting
for 51% and 40.3% of GDP respectively. The manufacturing and agriculture
sectors contributed 8.4% and 0.5% to GDP. Since then, the economy has
contracted and there have been adverse changes to its GDP composition.
The creation of an enabling
environment that facilitates
new and sustainable growth
within the non-energy sector is
therefore critical
The way forward
Our services sector is robust and diverse, with each sub-sector contributing
significantly to GDP. Although labour-intensive and a small contributor, the
agriculture sector possesses significant opportunities for new growth and
employment creation. Stimulating rapid agricultural growth will provide the
opportunity to reduce our food import bill and create greater domestic price
stability.
Other sectors which hold prospects for new growth in new markets are
manufacturing and tourism. However, the key to attaining sustainability, price
stability, acceptable income distribution and market confidence will be the
services sector, which can then support employment creation and growth in
agriculture and manufacturing.
CHAMBER.ORG.TT
MARCH 2019 15