New do­mes­tic eco­nom­ic in­di­ca­tors re­leased in the Cen­tral Bank of T&T’s June 2026 Eco­nom­ic Dat­a­Pack sug­gest that ac­tiv­i­ty in key ar­eas of the lo­cal econ­o­my weak­ened dur­ing the first quar­ter of 2026, with de­clines in con­struc­tion-re­lat­ed de­mand, busi­ness in­vest­ment and ve­hi­cle pur­chas­es high­light­ing per­sis­tent chal­lenges in the non-en­er­gy sec­tor.

The da­ta, which track do­mes­tic eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty through mea­sures such as ce­ment sales, ce­ment pro­duc­tion, mo­tor ve­hi­cle sales and ve­hi­cle reg­is­tra­tions, show that sev­er­al in­di­ca­tors de­te­ri­o­rat­ed af­ter a mixed per­for­mance through­out 2025. Par­tic­u­lar­ly no­table were sharp de­clines in com­mer­cial ve­hi­cle sales, to­tal ve­hi­cle reg­is­tra­tions and lo­cal ce­ment sales, all of which are com­mon­ly used as barom­e­ters of busi­ness con­fi­dence, con­sumer spend­ing and con­struc­tion ac­tiv­i­ty.

The fig­ures pro­vide one of the clear­est snap­shots yet of how the do­mes­tic econ­o­my was per­form­ing out­side of the en­er­gy sec­tor at the start of 2026, amid on­go­ing con­cerns over slug­gish growth, ris­ing busi­ness costs and the need to strength­en non-en­er­gy eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty.