There’s no plan by government at this time, to devalue the TT dollar.

This from Finance Minister, Colm Imbert, who says consultation with the Central Bank has shown that there will be a negative economic impact in devaluing the dollar, especially at this time.

For example, the Minister said this could expose government to more demands from trade unions for an increase in public servant salaries.

The Finance Minister was speaking at Monday’s Spotlight on the 2021 Budget, where he painted a sobering picture of the economic times ahead- significantly impacted by the fallout of the current COVID-19 pandemic. 

Nonetheless, Imbert said government had managed to maintain significant savings for a rainy day.

He revealed that the Heritage and Stabilization Fund has a current balance of $5.8 billion USD, rubbishing claims that government had drained the savings fund.

Government withdrew a total of $1.5 billion USD over the last five years, however, Minister Imbert said the fund had improved by $1.8billion USD over the same period.