Why is Imbert so silent on the poor state of the economy?

Finance Minister COLM IMBERT

People are saying about a year ago while speaking during the mid-year budget review last May, Finance Minister Colm Imbert was boasting that the economy of Trinidad and Tobago has turned around.

In fact, he said, (with a broad smile on his face and very animated) that the economy is not turning around, in fact, it has turned around, noting that “revenue collection is up, the non-oil sector is growing and the energy sector is booming”. But now he has remained silent on the state of the economy for this year so far, especially since the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week projected zero percent growth in 2019 for T&T. In its World Economic Outlook, which was released, the IMF also noted that the TT economy grew just 0.3 per-cent - a marked difference from the 1.9 percent the Government (Imbert) suggested in the budget last October. Imbert estimated a growth forecast of two percent in 2018 and 2.2 percent in 2019, rising to 2.5 percent in 2020. He had slammed uninformed persons who speak without any facts. What will Imbert say to those uninformed persons who were saying that he was just fooling the people? People are saying that Trade and Industry Minister Paula GopeeScoon had the temerity also to tell the nation recently that the country was out of a recession. PM Dr. Keith Rowley has been holding PNM public meetings along the East-West corridor over the past weeks and beside the usual and repetitive talk about corruption in the past Kamla PersadBissessar administration, he has not made any mention about the declining state of the economy. Why, PM?