Trinidad and Tobago's central bank held its benchmark repo rate steady at 2.75 percent in the inaugural meeting of its expanded Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), saying it would "continue to nurture financial conditions supportive of the recovery."
The Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, which recently added two external members to its MPC, said inflationary pressures were contained, the domestic economy appears to be on a path of recovery but it was concerned over the eight successive month of lower business lending in July and elevated liquidity conditions that reflect continued caution by the private sector.
Economic growth has mainly been driven by the non-energy sector and the central bank expects this to continue in the second half of the year. Gross Domestic Product expanded by an average annual 1.7 percent for four successive quarters to June 2013, up from a contraction of an average 1.6 percent in the preceding four quarters, the bank said.
Trinidad and Tobago's headline inflation rose to 5.1 percent in August from 3.8 percent in July due to higher food prices
As part of its new policy framework, the central banks will supplement its monetary policy announcement every two months with a biannual monetary policy report and an economic bulletin.
The central bank cut its rate by 25 basis points last year.
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