(Trinidad Express) The level of poverty in Trinidad and Tobago is estimated to have risen by nearly two per cent during the 2008-2009 period, Planning Minister Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie has said.
In 2007, the country’s estimated level of poverty was 17 per cent.
In an address at the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Commerce in Westmoorings yesterday, Tewarie said this figure comes from a 2008/2009 Household Budgetary Survey conducted by the Central Statistical Office (CSO).
“It’s not surprising, given the (stock market) crash in 2008 and the recession in 2009,” he said.
He also said the CSO’s latest statistics, from December 2010, showed unemployment had risen to 6.3 per cent—up from 5.9 per cent in the previous quarter.
He said, though, that inflation was “under control”.
Tewarie defended the work of the CSO, saying that while people may have complained it was not doing its job, it was out doing the census, which used up most of its resources.
“We cannot have planning and development without accurate figures… These are the kind of numbers that are important, so what we are doing is a complete overhaul of the database and of the CSO, with funding from a UK grant,” said Tewarie.
Tewarie’s address was intended to delineate Government’s plan for economic diversification, and he said in the upcoming fiscal year Government would be spending between $7 billion and $8 billion in the Public Sector Investment Programme.
“The private sector at home will immediately benefit from this strategic spending across the country.
“About 75 per cent of these projects will be in construction-related activity and the rest to support transformation, innovation and diversification of the economy.
“Would it be too much to ask the local private sector to work with the Government through their institutions and as individual investors, businessmen and entrepreneurs to invest $2 billion in the economy?” he asked.
