(Trinidad Express) The cost of borrowing continues to climb.
The country’s largest bank, Republic Bank Ltd (RBL) advised by newspaper advertisement yesterday that its TT dollar Prime lending rate has been increased to 9.5 per cent up from 9.25 per cent per annum, effective January 11, 2016.
Asked why, Republic Bank’s managing director designate, Nigel Baptiste, said: “Our recent announcement of the increase in Prime (lending rate) is directly related to the increase in (the) Repo (rate) announced by the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago (CBTT) prior to Christmas.
“We endeavour at all times to maintain the spread between Repo and our Prime. It took this long due to the Christmas season and various analyses which we undertook. On this occasion, we have also made a number of upward adjustments to our deposit rates.”
When asked on New Year’s Eve (Dec 31, 2015), new Central Bank Governor Alvin Hilaire gave no indication where his mind was in terms of the policy rate known as the Repo rate, which guides commercial banks’ setting interest rates on loans and deposits. Hilaire said: “We are looking at what happens every day and will adjust policy to suit.”
