The economy of Trinidad and Tobago, has undergone three distinct economic phases over the last fifty years. From the 1950's the TT economy saw the emergence of a dominant, capital intensive oil sector and the subsequent oil boom years of the 70's. Since the beginning of the 1990's the economy has been getting back on track. Now, the policy environment is no longer to 'control the commanding heights' but, instead, to 'build a platform for international competitiveness', necessitating a fundamental shift in policy prescriptions. These new policy prescriptions have begun to bear fruit.
Recent performance shows that the economy is back on track.
Trinidad and Tobago has registered four consecutive years of real growth averaging about 3.5 per cent per annum during 1994-1997. Additionally, these gains in output reflected a broad-based expansion with some degree of economic diversification in the energy, tradable and the financial sectors. Underlying the economy's growth in the first half of 1998 was the buoyancy of the energy sector. Output grew by 1.6 percent on the basis of increased production of crude oil and refinery throughput and, in addition, the petrochemicals sub-sector grew by 17.7 percent as a result of significant additions to capacity. The performance in 1998 was marred by a sharp fall in real output in Agriculture.