learn the story of ram ’ s life and his adherence to truth despite harsh challenges. the bank supported this cultural artform by partly funding a group called the pandavas based in palmiste, south trinidad. this is a youth ramleela group and last weekend they put on an advanced community production that would rival shows that are staged by professionals in queen ’ s hall and in this auditorium. even as we did this, there were some who corrosively questioned why the central bank was supporting ramleela. i wish to remind everyone that it was no lesser personage than derek walcott who chose to open his 1992 nobel prize acceptance speech for literature entitled “ the antilles : fragments of epic memory ” with a strong and striking reference to ramleela in felicity, replete with color, song and ritual. i also wish to remind everyone that in 2005 unesco proclaimed ramleela among the world ’ s “ masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity ”. according to unesco, ramleela is a repository of cultural diversity and creative expression, as well as a driving force for living cultures. since ramleela can be vulnerable to the forces of globalization, social transformation, and intolerance, unesco encourages communities to identify, document, protect, promote and revitalize such heritage. for the first time as well, this year the central bank has a booth at the divali nagar, showcasing our two outreach arms – the office of the financial services ombudsman and the national financial literacy program. i encourage you to visit us at the divali nagar, whether you have a complaint about a bank or insurance company, whether you are simply curious about improving your financial literacy, or whether you just want to see a softer, more humane side to the central bank. our people would be delighted to meet with you. ladies and gentlemen, trinidad and tobago is a diverse country. from indian arrival day to eid - ul - fitr, from emancipation to ramleela and divali, from tuco ’ s calypso history month to carnival, the central bank intends to support our rich cultural diversity. while i am happy to share this show with you i must tell you that all of our cultural events are also held for staff. this year as we turned to lord hanuman for inspiration, we had a roat and parsad making display for staff, as part of our divali activities. some of you may know roat is a fried sweet

ewart s williams : inflation in trinidad and tobago opening remarks by mr ewart s williams, governor of the central bank of trinidad and tobago, at the launch of the bank ’ s education pamphlet no. 2 - “ inflation ”, port - of - spain, 8 august 2006. * * * welcome to the alumni from our reuters journalism course of september 2005 and to other members of the media. we had promised to invite you back to check the progress. we thought that it would be nice to give you an opportunity to showcase some of the things you learnt at the course, and the launch of our second “ public education pamphlet ” on a topic of heightened national interest, seemed to provide the ideal occasion. we are hoping that you help us in another respect. as we say in our foreword, “ our pamphlet series is targeted to a broad audience – students at secondary and tertiary institutions and members of the public that have an interest in increasing their knowledge of economics and business. ” we would like to get your views as to whether we are getting close to our target audience. as to the theme of our second pamphlet we couldn ’ t be more timely and topical. the pamphlet seeks to explain the ( pernicious ) effect of inflation, underlying the fact that it affects a broad cross section of the population, but particularly the poor. it goes on to trace the country ’ s inflation performance from the 1970s to 2005. as you know, last year ( 2005 ) saw a jump in inflation ( on an annual average basis ) from 3. 9 per cent to 6. 7 per cent. the inflationary momentum has continued through 2006 with 12 - month inflation reaching 8 per cent in july. the main driver of inflation has been the rise in food prices which reached 24 per cent on a 12 - month basis in july. the pamphlet raises the spectra of inflationary expectations which could lead to wage pressures and perpetuate inflation. there is a passing caution against resorting to price controls, which carry their own problems. the fact is that the only way to address our inflation problem is the old - fashioned way – through increasing agricultural output, tight monetary policy, greater fiscal restraint and wage discipline. a tall order – but that prescription works all the time.