The Budget of Trinidad and Tobago; 2005

Here's the Trinidad and Tobago Budget 2005 Speech (304 kb PDF) for those interested. I am, but at first glance there seems to be a lot of political overture in the economic undertow.

The Budget Day, Trinidad Express tutorial is worth a read - but I often wonder what 'political intelligence' really means.

With oil prices hitting about $50 US a barrel, Trinidad and Tobago has made a high of around $40 US/barrel. It's apparent that Trinidd and Tobago is doing well off of the oil - and the 'stabilization fund', which is fed by prices over expectations of the budget, is growing rich. Without reading the exact figure to type it again, it's in excess of 4.5 billion TT dollars. Basically, close to 1 billion US dollars (divide by 6.3). With interest, next year should see it over that amount.

But is money in the bank a great investment for a developing country? I do not know, but I do know that I don't know (It's the Sudafed talking). The point is that maximizing every dollar is more important than stockpiling the dollars, and I'm not certain that this budget really does that.

I'll have to read it again and follow up on it.

For those of you following this site, I apologize for my lack of writing. I'm juggling important eggs right now...