Aleem Khan
Trinidad Express
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Past articles by Aleem:
BPTT planning new gas compression unit*
Without anything even remotely close to an offer of a 100 per cent tax write off in one year, as was the case in 2014, the world’s eighth largest oil and gas company by revenue, has pledged to invest more in Trinidad and Tobago. London-based BP plc Group upstream CEO Bernard Looney, in a conference call with investors earlier this month, said: “We expect to FID a large compression project in… → Read More
Electric cars on sale next month*
By the end of next month, the world trend toward electric cars will reach T&T. The news came out of one of several interviews, over the last two weeks, on whether government is positioning the country to end up on the wrong side of history with its compressed natural gas CNG) vehicle thrust. → Read More
More gas for other operators*
Vancouver, Canada-based Methanex, a major investor in Point Lisas and one of the world’s largest methanol producers, told analysts on a conference call last week that Trinidad is a complicated market. An analyst was asking about natural gas supply, the same issue that currently rankles ammonia producer, Caribbean Nitrogen Company, whose natural gas supply was stopped last month 410 persons… → Read More
Crackdown on US$ blackmarket*
In his first in-depth interview as new president of the Bankers Association of Trinidad and Tobago (BATT), Republic Financial Holdings Ltd Managing director, Nigel Baptiste, called on the authorities to deal with a long-standing illegality: the US dollar (USD) black market. → Read More
First Citizens: T&T rebounded in 2017*
The fall in real gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2017 was not as bad as that of 2016, and more than half of the country’s output, or GDP, is owed in debt. These were the only two points on which economists and analysts agreed last week in interviews and emails from January 2 to 5. → Read More
More takeover details needed*
Minority shareholders of Guardian Holdings Ltd (GHL) are calling on GHL and NCB Global Holdings Ltd to disclose a 2015 ‘lock-up’ agreement signed between the then respective majority owners—the Lok Jack and Ahamad families (GHL), and Jamaican billionaire Michael Lee Chin (NCB)—pertinent to the sale of a majority stake in GHL to NCB. → Read More
T&T exports rise by 13%*
Though far from a correction to the previous year’s level, Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) exports saw a modest retracement in 2017, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) economists said last week. Exports had fallen to such a deep and record low in 2016, the 13 per cent increase would mean Trinidad and Tobago exported US$9.3 billion in goods and services, using Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago… → Read More
Only gloom, doom *
budget talks: Panellists at Friday's Congress of the People's (COP) First Pre-Budget Discussion at the COP Operations Centre in Charlieville, Chaguanas, from left, former senate president Timothy Hamel-Smith; former government ministers Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan, Vasant Bharath, psychologist Dr Sharon Gopaul McNicol and former senator Dr Rodger Samuel; and COP chairman Jamieson Bahadur. THE… → Read More
Foreign exchange sales up 41% for first five months of 2017
THE foreign exchange market in Trinidad and Tobago continued to face pressures as the fall in export earnings as a result of the terms of trade shock has not been matched by a fall in foreign exchange demand, the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago (CBTT) has said in its latest Monetary Policy Report (MPR) May 2017 released last Friday. → Read More
Fears of CL 'fire sale'
Why does the Government want to terminate potentially viable entities via liquidation of CL Financial? “That's a very important question, and that is what is mind-boggling, and that is what I do not understand. The only reasonable inference one can draw is—what happened in other countries and in other instances, is it that the assets of CL Financial are targeted for certain people? Because with… → Read More
Jobless rate rises to 4%
MORE than 6,000 jobs have been struck off the record, according to the latest Monetary Policy Report (MPR) of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago (CBTT) released yesterday.“Latest data from the Central Statistical Office (CSO) revealed that the unemployment rate rose in the third quarter of 2016, to 4.0 per cent from 3.4 per cent in the similar quarter of 2015,” the CBTT said in its MPR for… → Read More
IDB: Acute forex shortage in T&T*
FOREIGN exchange shortages persist in Trinidad and Tobago, and since 2016 have become acute, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has said in its latest Caribbean quarterly bulletin released in Washington. → Read More
'Paying of bank nuisance fees puzzling'*
NOT all banks have “nuisance fees” and it is incomprehensible to at least one director of the Bankers Association of Trinidad and Tobago (BATT) why people would pay them.Speaking yesterday at the Couva Point Lisas Chamber of Commerce on Camden Road in Couva, BATT director and JMMB Bank chief executive Nigel Romano said: “So we (the banks) pay very little on deposits and there is a reason for… → Read More
Crumbs for private sector borrowing?*
THE Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago is noting what economists call crowding out the private sector for loans. The Financial Stability Report (FSR) 2016 of the CBTT released on June 13 stated: “Heavy borrowing in the domestic markets by the government has been accompanied by a reduction in lending to businesses and slowdown in growth in other private sector credit. Net domestic financing… → Read More
‘People still eating out despite recession’ *
Aleem Khan—THE people of Trinidad and Tobago have not curbed their eating-out habits, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the nation’s largest restaurant management company by number of outlets... → Read More
Economist: Increased chances of TT dollar weakening*
THE Trinidad and Tobago dollar will continue to depreciate, a Bank of Nova Scotia vice president in Canada has said. Brett House, who is also the bank’s deputy chief economist, made the forecast on June 20 in a Country Briefing from the bank’s Toronto head office. The last forecast from the Scotiabank Economics team was accurate. On September 1, 2016, Scotiabank analyst Erika Cain said the… → Read More
Coca-Cola franchisee wins US$1m
Aleem Khan—TUNAPUNA-based Caribbean Bottlers Trinidad and Tobago Ltd, the Coca-Cola Company’s largest Caribbean franchise holder, has won US$1.08 million in a Florida court order. → Read More
Venezuela stopping imports, not increasing exports, says IMF*
THE Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF), long unwelcome in Venezuela since the days of now deceased president Hugo Chavez, is projecting worse to come for the beleaguered South American country.Last Wednesday in Port of Spain the IMF forecast more trouble for Venezuela in its Regional Economic Outlook (REO) Forum at the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago (CBTT) tower. → Read More
IMF: T&T debt to grow in 2018 *
Aleem Khan—THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) is projecting Trinidad and Tobago taxpayers will have to bear a public sector gross debt burden of 75.7 per cent of... → Read More
Bachelet: T&T very important to Chile*
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet outlined why the visit of Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley was important to her nation while addressing delegations from both countries at La Moneda presidential palace in the capital Santiago on Monday.“Trinidad and Tobago is a very important partner for us in energy matters as our main supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and that’s… → Read More