The finance minister says, there will be no devaluation of the TT dollar.

According to Minister Colm Imbert, such a move will not increase the availability of foreign exchange in the country.

The minister issued a three-page release, responding to concerns about troubled availability of foreign currency.

Minister Imbert yesterday said, all a devaluation will do is cause a massive spike in the cost of living and make everything more expensive”.

The minister said, he had taken note over the last two weeks of commentary on the availability of foreign exchange, the policy for distribution of foreign exchange, and the exchange rate of the TT dollar.

Commentators, economists and business groups operating in the country have noted an ongoing us dollar shortage and the difficulty it poses to them.

According to minister Imbert, the “reality is that the international monetary fund’s recommendation that the government should allow the TT dollar to float, which would result in an immediate devaluation of the TT dollar, is not new”.

He said as far back as 2012, the IMF recommended ‘greater exchange rate flexibility to allow pricing to play a bigger role in equilibrating the market.

The minister recalled this was repeated in the IMF’s 2013 article iv report on Trinidad and Tobago, where the IMF reiterated its view that the exchange rate should be allowed to fluctuate within a wider band’.

He said, the then UNC government told the IMF it was not contemplating changes to the exchange rate system at that time.

The minister said again in 2014, the IMF told the then UNC government the foreign exchange allocation system existing at that time, ‘had led to an apparently widespread and persistent recurrence of foreign exchange shortages’.

However, Mr. Imbert said, the then UNC government did not agree to the IMF’s recommendation that our dollar be allowed to float.