Gov’t announces measures to ease COVID-19 impact

PORT-OF-SPAIN (CMC):

Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday announced a series of measures it hopes will help reduce the anticipated economic impact of the coronavirus on the oil-rich twin-island republic.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley told a news conference that the policies are conditioned on a two-month period in the first instance, and hoped other forecasts, by experts of the coronavirus being around for at least 18 months “is not what we are dealing with”.

He told reporters at the end of a special cabinet meeting “We are aiming to have a system where there is high liquidity and low interest rates immediately, and the conversation between the governor of the central bank and the minister of finance, has resulted in a reduction in the reserve requirement at the central bank from 17 to 14 per cent and a reduction in the repo rate … from five per cent to 3.5 per cent.

Cash contingency

“What that has done is to put TT$2.6 billion (one TT dollar = US$0.16 cents) from the central bank in the community. So all persons doing business with the commercial banks, TT$2.6 billion is available to them so that these businesses will not be in danger of running out of cash”.

Rowley said that the commercial banks will experience a reduction in prime rate and they will “pass that down”.

Rowley said that his administration was also moving to assist persons with financial commitments and likely to be affected “by what is happening in the economy” and, as a result, “some people will not be able to meet those commitments because of their inability to pay”.

He said the authorities in their deliberations have been able to get the commercial banks to agree to a moratoria for one month in the first instance so that mortgages and instalment loans could be deferred, “not forgiven, but deferred during this period of emergency”.