By Darcel Choy Friday, September 10 2010

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Economic matters: Economist Dr Ronald Ramkissoon comments on the 2011 Budget at an Amcham discussion at Hilton Trinidad, St Ann's yesterday. ...

Economist Dr Ronald Ramkissoon yesterday said after the 2011 Budget presentation on Wednesday, he was pleased to see the economic situation was not as bad as expected.

He was speaking yesterday at the American Chamber of Commerce’s post-Budget panel discussion at the Hilton Trinidad in St Ann’s.

He noted the economy grew in 2010 by 2.5 percent and the fiscal deficit of 3.5 percent was smaller than expected. He was also pleased to see the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund was currently at $3.3 billion. Ramkissoon said, however, the projected deficit for the coming fiscal year is going to be higher.

He commended the Government on the incentives offered for businesses to encourage diversification.

“We all recognise the importance of developing other sectors, we would not forget some 11 years of decline that this economy faced from 1983 as a result of a decline in price and quantity of our major export commodities. It is pleasing to see that within one year we are about to get into continuous growth. We would see attention being paid to infrastructure to support non-energy sectors and we would like to see that the emphasis continues,” he said.

Ramkissoon added the private sector should take advantage of the opportunities presented to them. He expressed his surprise on the non-announcement of the minimum wage as there was a lot of discussion around the issue before the Budget.

“I am optimistic that it seems it would allow a little more time to deliberate, to research what minimum wages have done in other countries, what they are and the impact on the non-unionised workforce,” he said.

Ramkissoon added this was the first budget that did not begin with painting the international economy.

“We need to have a sense of where the Minister of Finance sees the international economy going,” he said.