T&T Government Prepared To Heed IMF Advice

• Following the downgrade by Moody’s on November 12, 2021, Finance Minister, Colm Imbert, said the Government is 'certainly prepared to heed' the advice of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that 'policy attention should focus on reducing public debt levels and rebuilding fiscal buffers,' once the economic recovery is firmly in place. 
• Yesterday afternoon, Imbert suggested that the Government would welcome 'more detailed technical engagement,' on the call by the IMF for the Government to remove restrictions on current international transactions. 
• Those comments came in the third news release from the Ministry of Finance following the publication of the IMF's concluding statement on Friday after its 2021 Article IV consultation with the T& T authorities. 
• The news release was headlined 'The IMF Praises Trinidad and Tobago's Policy Response to COVID-19 and Encourages T&T to Shift its Policy Attention Only When Recovery is in Place'. 
• Regarding the IMF's mission statement that it encouraged the Government 'to modernise foreign exchange and money market infrastructure to reduce inefficiencies and imbalances to support the sustainability of the existing arrangements,' Imbert said: 'We are welcoming any constructive solutions that will, in the end, improve our citizens' lives.'

(Source: Trinidad Express Newspapers)