Trinidad and Tobago.

Fiscal anchor

No binding fiscal rule or statutory debt ceiling. The authorities operate a non-binding soft debt target (65% of GDP in 2018, revised to 75% by the 2023 and 2024 consultations); the FY2026 budget targets an overall deficit of 2.2% of GDP. The 2026 Article IV Board urged adoption of a medium-term fiscal framework anchored by a well-designed fiscal rule and a credible debt anchor, which it would not do if a binding anchor were already in force.

IMF programme status

No active programme; surveillance only

Notes

All figures here are from the table to Press Release 26/159, issued when the IMF Executive Board concluded the 2026 Article IV consultation on 18 May 2026, and are on a fiscal-year, central-government basis. Central government debt is 64.5% of GDP in FY2024 and then flat at 67.8% across FY2025 and FY2026. Public sector debt, the wider measure, runs 81.8%, 84.2% and 84.1% over the same three years. The central government primary balance is -2.2%, -1.9% and -0.8%, and the overall balance -5.9%, -5.5% and -4.6%, so the deficit is narrowing but remains well outside the 2.2% target in the FY2026 budget. Real GDP growth is 0.8% in both 2025 and 2026. The non-energy primary deficit, the better gauge of the underlying position in an energy economy, is 14.2% of non-energy GDP in FY2024, widening to 15.0% in FY2025 before narrowing to 14.0% in FY2026. Where the February 2026 Staff Concluding Statement differs, the Board table supersedes it: the concluding statement had put the FY2025 non-energy primary deficit at 14.9% and the FY2026 central government primary balance at -1.4%.