Three out of four workers in Trinidad and Tobago are employed in services, and the country still runs a services trade deficit north of USD 500 million. Translation: this economy is fully staffed to do the work, and paying someone abroad to do it anyway. 

 Introduction 

The concept that Dutch disease has been a continuous burden on Trinidad and Tobago’s economy is one rightly advanced by local economic thought-leaders. Defined as the circumstances where a natural resource boom leads to the deindustrialisation of non-energy sectors, typically manufacturing and agriculture, Dutch disease is a complex phenomenon engaging several economic models. Among these is Baumol’s cost disease, where salary increases in productive sectors, for Trinidad and Tobago the energy sector during boom periods, drive unsustainable growth in services. 

 In these models, services are treated as non-tradable: domestically consumed outputs unable to compete in foreign markets. This framing is a relic of the original Dutch disease model of the late 1970s, and it is precisely here that local application of the theory becomes questionable. 

READ MORE HERE: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/crowding-out-services-trinidad-imports-instead-builds-tishana-simon-saz5c

 Every Caribbean startup ecosystem falls in the lowest level of the Start Up development ladder. Commissioned by IDB Lab and the European Union and produced by Startup Genome for the CaribEquity Innovation assessment report — Caribbean countries sit in the Activation Phase: the lowest rung of a four-stage development ladder. All 15 territories. None has reached Early Activation. None is approaching Globalization.

Rease more here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-caribequity-data-means-your-next-caribbean-move-tishana-simon-kbkxc

 T&T's 2026 IMF Article IV report looks fine in the headlines. 

It is not fine in the footnotes. Here is what the data actually says — and what it means for your next decision. 

THE NUMBER THAT FRAMES EVERYTHING−33% 

Natural gas production decline in Trinidad & Tobago since 2015. From 4.3 bcf/day to 2.5 bcf/day in 2024. 

Still falling.

THE DIAGNOSIS

Growth at 0.8%. For the second consecutive year. That is not a recovery trajectory. That is a flatline.The IMF's 2026 Article IV Consultation for Trinidad and Tobago was published on May 18th. The government described it as "renewed international confidence." The Express editorial described it more plainly: "much more restrained." Both are correct. What the IMF says in diplomatic language, and what the data shows plainly, are two different readings of the same document. This brief is the second one. 

Read the full intelligence brief in Numbers & Narratives: linkedin.com/pulse/imf-said-quiet-part-out-loud-tishana-simon-f7mtc 

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