Economists divided on whether T&T in recession

T&T’s econ­o­my is ex­hibit­ing many of the char­ac­ter­is­tics as­so­ci­at­ed with a re­ces­sion, but econ­o­mists re­main di­vid­ed on whether the coun­try’s cur­rent eco­nom­ic dif­fi­cul­ties fit the tra­di­tion­al de­f­i­n­i­tion of a re­ces­sion or re­flect a deep­er struc­tur­al slump dri­ven by the pro­longed de­cline of the en­er­gy sec­tor.

Econ­o­mist Dr Ronald Ramkissoon told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day that by the stan­dard de­f­i­n­i­tion used in­ter­na­tion­al­ly, this coun­try is tech­ni­cal­ly in a re­ces­sion. “Us­ing the stan­dard de­f­i­n­i­tion of a re­ces­sion, we are in a re­ces­sion be­cause the de­f­i­n­i­tion is two con­sec­u­tive quar­ters of neg­a­tive growth,” Ramkissoon ex­plained.

His com­ments come as Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les, in her 2027 Bud­get re­sponse in Par­lia­ment last Fri­day, ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of putting the econ­o­my in­to re­ces­sion.