Rowley: Trinidad and Tobago will not devalue currency

Facing a prolonged foreign exchange crisis and under pressure from the business community to release more money into the system, the Trinidad cabinet says that there are no plans whatsoever to devalue the local dollar as it would impoverish a large swath of the population and hike prices for imported goods.

Speaking in parliament on Monday Prime Minister Keith Rowley blamed special interest groups for demanding a devaluation, suggesting they are the ones who would be able to buy up foreign currencies if it became more expensive while the less rich would struggle to buy dollars.

The official rate of the T&T dollar is just under US$7-1 TT but the growing black market trade has seen American dollars being bought for as much as 9-10-1, amid fears that demand for money demands ahead of the Christmas holidays could put even more pressure on the exchange rate.

The debate about devaluation and the unavailability to access foreign currency have come as fellow CARICOM trade bloc nations Barbados, Jamaica and Suriname have all debated whether to float or devalue their currencies with varying success. Like Trinidad, successive Barbadian governments have refused to tinker with the exchange rate of US$2-1 Barbadian, while Jamaica and Suriname have opted to float their currencies on the open market, allowing market forces to determine the rate. As of this week, the Jamaican dollar was weakening almost daily, trading on Tuesday at $156.21-1, while Suriname is at US$1-35 and also showing signs of weakening. Guyana is the other major player which has long floated its currency and it has fluctuated between $200-1 to $210-1 over the past three decades. PM Rowley says special interest groups won’t be allowed to have their way.

“We have noticed a deliberate attempt in recent times to put pressure on the government to devalue the currency. Let me save them from wasting their time today. There will be no devaluation of the currency, because the pressure on the government to devalue the currency is coming from people who have forex largely, using their attempt in the country to make this an issue, ignoring the fact that any devaluation could only result in increased costs across the board.”

He also blamed the federation with Tobago’s taste for products from overseas for the unrelenting pressure on the currency. “In 2024 there is clearly an increased demand for foreign exchange due to the growth of the economy an over the years in the taste for foreign goods and for the use of online purchasing,” Rowley said, noting that the amount of dollars available in the banking system over the past two years was the same as a decade ago, approximately US$7 billion. “This is no reduction in the marketplace. The minister of finance has already met with the four largest commercial banks to discuss this matter and will be meeting with business organizations over the next month.”

An investigation of the scenario by the Guardian newspaper, meanwhile, seems to suggest that car dealers and importers are among those putting the most pressure on the dollar, while officials like Finance Minister Com Imbert point to credit card purchases amounting to about $1 billion yearly.