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Sev­er­al econ­o­mists are say­ing it would be a dan­ger­ous move for this coun­try’s econ­o­my to raise the ex­change rate of the US dol­lar from TT$6.79 to TT$9. They say such an ad­just­ment, with­out solv­ing struc­tur­al eco­nom­ic is­sues in Trinidad and To­ba­go, will not au­gur well.

Pro­fes­sor Patrick Wat­son strong­ly op­pos­es the idea of a di­rect de­val­u­a­tion to TT$9.

Draw­ing from the ex­pe­ri­ences of oth­er Caribbean na­tions like Ja­maica and Guyana, he warned that such a move of­ten trig­gers a spec­u­la­tive spi­ral. He said once a sig­nal is sent that de­val­u­a­tion is ac­cept­able, “every­body will start think­ing that this thing will just get worse,” prompt­ing hoard­ing and spec­u­la­tion.