PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) — Trinidad and Tobago’s leader has warned the Caribbean nation that it will have to adjust to making do with less amid major declines in energy revenue and declining production of natural gas and oil.
In a late Tuesday address, Prime Minister Keith Rowley said the twin-island nation must make serious adjustments if it is to avoid the kind of economic contractions it suffered during a 1980s oil bust.
He says the country could face the prospect of entering into a future loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund if it doesn’t make adjustments.
Rowley says US$1.5 billion will be taken from a stabilisation fund over the next two years. Meanwhile, the government might also explore for natural gas with Venezuela in an offshore field that straddles the two nations’ territories.