FINANCE Minister Colm Imbert has slammed what he described as a misleading newspaper story about government borrowing.
He did so in a statement issued by his ministry on July 24.
Imbert said the article published in the Trinidad Guardian on the same day, gives an entirely false impression that as a result of massive government borrowing, the public debt increased by over $14 billion between October 2023 and June 2024.
"However, this is simply untrue and because of its gross inaccuracy, and the large figure quoted, this misreporting can create confusion in the minds of the general public."
Imbert said the author of the article did not understand the superficial and flawed analysis of public debt in the article, causing the author to fall into the same trap the Opposition regularly fell into when it came to such matters.
He added that the flawed approach towards evaluating government borrowing in both instances did not take into account refinancing transactions or repayments of principal.
Imbert said this approach was therefore erroneous commentary based on grossly inaccurate figures for government borrowing.
"Indeed, over the period October 2023 to June 2024, the government made central-government and government-guaranteed principal repayments totaling $9.23 billion, of which central-government was $6.8 billion and government-guaranteed was $2.43 billion. These repayments had the effect of reducing the net public debt by $9.23 billion."
He said, "Further, over the same period, a total of $2.67 billion in debt involved refinancing of central-government and government-guaranteed debt, which did not increase the public debt.
"Principal repayments and borrowing for refinancing must always therefore be deducted from the total government debt financing for any period to get the true level of borrowing."
Imbert added, "In this case, for the period October 2023 to June 2024, the public debt actually increased by $4.07 billion, or $10 billion less that the $14 billion figure quoted in the Guardian article."
He said the population's understanding of Trinidad and Tobago's true economic situation was not helped in any way "when sensationalist and inaccurate articles of this nature are published."
Imbert advised the Guardian to do better research and more in-depth analysis of the facts instead of rushing to print gross misinformation.
He also said it was necessary for people to understand that the Central Bank's monetary policy report reflects all primary market issuances. That includes issuances of corporates and non-government-guaranteed debt.
"Over the period in question, the National Investment Fund Holding Company raised $400 million in February 2024 and First Citizens Investments Services Ltd raised US$30 million in October 2023. These issuances are primary market activities but do not add to the government’s debt."
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