FINANCE Minister Colm Imbert welcomed information provided by the Central Statistical Office (CSO) on Friday which showed economic growth in 2022.

In a statement by his ministry, Imbert said the CSO data showed "instead of a decline of -0.1 per cent in Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in TT in the first quarter of 2022, as previously estimated by the CSO, it has now advised that our economy actually grew by 1.6 per cent in that quarter."

According to the CSO, he continued, real GDP grew by a substantial 6.6 per cent in the second quarter of 2022.

"This means that for the first half of 2022, according to the CSO, real GDP grew by a heathy 4.1 per cent, almost twice the growth figure previously estimated for that period." Imbert was encouraged by growth in the non-energy sector last year.

"The non-energy sector experienced real GDP growth of 4.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2022 and real GDP growth of 10.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2022, yielding strong economic growth in the non-energy sector of 7.5 per cent in the first half of 2022."

Imbert said this data demonstrates that the economy is "recovering from the ravages of the covid19 pandemic and that our diversification efforts are bearing fruit."

"The data also indicates that our nominal GDP, which is used to calculate our debt-to-GDP ratio is also better than previously estimated. In fact, preliminary calculations indicate that nominal GDP for TT in the first half of 2022 was $3 billion more than previously calculated."

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