T&T’s eco­nom­ic out­look is show­ing ten­ta­tive signs of sta­bil­i­ty, but an­a­lysts and the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty warn that the coun­try re­mains caught be­tween short-term gains from favourable ex­ter­nal con­di­tions and deep-root­ed struc­tur­al weak­ness­es that con­tin­ue to lim­it sus­tain­able growth.

While high­er glob­al en­er­gy prices are ex­pect­ed to pro­vide a tem­po­rary boost to rev­enues and sup­port fis­cal bal­ances, the un­der­ly­ing re­al­i­ty is that out­put con­straints, per­sis­tent fis­cal pres­sures and slow di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion ef­forts con­tin­ue to shape the econ­o­my’s tra­jec­to­ry.

Against this mixed back­drop of cau­tious op­ti­mism and on­go­ing vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, econ­o­mists Mar­i­ano Browne and In­dera Sage­wan say the coun­try’s mod­est growth prospects re­flect sta­bil­i­ty rather than trans­for­ma­tion.