(Trinidad Express) The Government’s management of the CLICO collapse and the State’s financial policies have seen a continued positive credit rating from international ratings agency Standard and Poor’s, Finance Minister Winston Dookeran said yesterday.
He was speaking at the post-Cabinet press conference at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s, where he said the local economy is sound and 2012 will be a better year.
Dookeran said for the past 18 months Government had to make hard decisions to avoid the economy from being “rocked”.
At the same time, he said, Government had to also meet financial obligations of the past.
“We are viewing 2012 with a new sense of confidence that we have put the economy on the right track,” he said.
“That has been further reinforced by the recent Standard and Poor’s assessment of the credit rating of Trinidad and Tobago.”
Dookeran said at a time when credit ratings were being downgraded throughout the world there was a bias in the system towards small economies as they were seen as being more exposed than before.
Despite all of this, Dookeran said, the Standard and Poor’s report reaffirmed the A/A-1 credit and currency rating for this country.
In doing so, Dookeran said S&P made the salient point that economic recovery had begun and the financial side of the country was stable.
“We have navigated the major hurdles, particularly with respect to the CLICO fiasco which they see is perhaps now behind us,” said Dookeran.
Standard and Poor’s, said Dookeran, also concurred that 2012 must be a year of investment both in the private and public sectors.
