PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad – Close to 25 000 jobs were lost in 2009 to 2010, pushing the country’s unemployment rate to the highest it has been in almost three years.
This information is contained in the Central Bank’s Monetary Policy Report dated October 2010, released on Friday by the bank at a Press conference at its offices in Port-of-Spain.
The report shows that the economy continues to languish and that gross domestic product (GDP) will not achieve the projected growth of two per cent this year.
Based on the report, real GDP growth for 2010 will be flat or at best one per cent.
This in large part is due to double-digit inflation and an unemployment rate that could reach between seven and eight per cent by year’s end.
According to the report, in the first quarter of 2010 the unemployment rate increased to 6.7 per cent, up from five per cent in the first quarter of 2009.
Job losses were highest in the construction sector, which lost more than 13 000 jobs between January and April. From the first quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2010, 24 700 people lost their jobs.Central bank governor Ewart Williams said, “The current weakness in economic activity is being accompanied by a sharp increase in unemployment and the surge
in headline inflation. These developments have occurred in the context of a policy mix that sought to provide fiscal stimulus and easy monetary conditions.
“In the second quarter (of 2010), and this is the latest quarter for which we have data, the estimate is a decline in real GDP of just under one per cent following an increase of 1.9 per cent earlier in the year.” (Trinidad Express)