May 2012 Financial News

As IMF official calls for subsidy cuts...Investor confidence in T&T rising says banker

May 23, 2012

As IMF official calls for subsidy cuts...

Investor confidence is growing in T&T’s economy, says Bruce Sim, head, capital markets and wealth management, RBC Financial (Caribbean) Ltd. “In the last two weeks alone, we have sold more units in our Roytrin Mutual Funds (over $350 million) than in all of the previous quarter ($253 million),” Sim said. “People only invest when they have confidence in the economy, and we are seeing some of that confidence coming back.”

He was speaking yesterday at a RBC breakfast seminar held at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad hotel, Port-of-Spain. He also said there is a buildup of liquidity in the banking system. “Added to that, there is a strong competition among the commercial banks for your business. We are looking for growth ourselves, and the only way we can grow is for our clients to grow...Some of the best deals you can do are deals done during a downturn,” Sim said.

The banker told the audience, comprising mainly RBC Royal Bank corporate clients, that a recession was a good time to acquire goods and services cheaply, for trimming fat from operations and for introducing the changes that would make their business stronger for the upswing that will surely come.

Sim quoted Trade Minister Stephen Cadiz as saying: “Stop depending on Government for everything. “Nothing will replace the private sector as the engine of growth in the economy and the facts are that many conditions at this point in time could not be better for investment.”

Judith Gold, mission chief to T&T for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), who also spoke at the seminar said T&T should start the process of removing its fuel subsidy. “When you have the luxury of time, do it, rather than from a point of desperation. I am not suggesting that is your future, but look at that contrast. You have the capacity to begin removing the fuel subsidy now,” Gold said.

Gold was the feature speaker yesterday at the RBC breakfast seminar held at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad hotel, Port-of-Spain. Gold said governments sometimes maintain a fuel subsidy for political reasons. “In making the decision to keep the fuel subsidy at times, a government looks at the political gain in this,” Gold said, “but it is not in your benefit to keep it.”


Source:
Raphael John-Lall
Trinidad Guardian
Wednesday May 23, 2012

http://www.guardian.co.tt/business/2012-05-23/investor-confidence-tt-rising-says-banker