Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar is warning that the PNM dipping into the country’s foreign reserves is a dangerous precedent.
She was speaking at a town meeting at the Charlieville Presbyterian Primary School, on Friday night.
Persad-Bissessar said, “We’re seeing an economy that is contracting, another question that we asked today was the amount of foreign reserves the country has.
“The question was asked of the said Finance Minister Colm Imbert, has the foreign reserves dropped or increased?
“Of course he didn’t answer yes or no, he stood up and gave the numbers. In fact, what it is they got from us on November 20, he said it was less than what we left in the treasury for the foreign reserves.”
She said US$500 million was pumped into the system and Imbert couldn’t give an account of where and how it had gone.
She said they kept pumping the foreign exchange into the market and that was being bought out.
Persad-Bissessar said the next step was to dip into the country’s foreign reserves and that was a very dangerous place to go.
Persad-Bissessar said Dr Suruj Rambachan attempted to pose the question and he was shut down, but she was sure they would find other ways to continue to raise those questions. She said new VAT increases would come into effect in January. See Page A18