-4,000 lost, says economist
(Trinidad Express) More than 4,000 Government-created jobs have been lost in the past ten months, economist Jwala Rambarran has said.
“During the years 2002 to 2007, the years of rapid expansion, 14,000 jobs were created and since October 2008, one-third of them went through,” Rambarran said.
He delivered the statistic last week during “The Ideas Forum” hosted by the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business at Mt Hope.
Rambarran said an examination of all indices indicated that Trinidad and Tobago has been in a recession since October.
He admitted that there was no “hard data” to support his claim, but insisted that “we are all feeling the effects of the recession”.
“The country has been in a recession for nine months and the effects could be seen in all sectors- energy production, retail sales and the private sector,” he said, adding that the financial rescue by Government of CL Financial worsened the situation.
“The bailout plan for CL totals three per cent of our GDP, but as much as 13 per cent of the GDP of the Eastern Caribbean islands,” Rambarran noted.
Trinidad and Tobago citizens have not experienced the last of the CL Financial bailout, he added.
He also cited information from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and said that it projected a turnaround from the global economic downturn by next year.
This was similar to the indicators he has seen in Trinidad and Tobago.
“We are in the trough now,” he said.
He said the good news was that the local economy was poised for a turnaround.
Rambarran said, according to the Central Bank, the initial forecast showed zero to one per cent growth in the country this year.
