TRINIDAD and Tobago’s sovereign wealth fund is worth US$5.5 billion.
This was revealed by Minister of Finance Colm Imbert during the 2023/2024 Budget presentation on Monday.
He said, “By any standards, the performance of the Heritage and Stabilization Fund has been commendable.
“This assessment is being made in the context of the 2022 capital market turbulences, which saw considerable declines in the value of sovereign wealth funds worldwide stemming from surges in inflation and interest rates.”
Imbert said in December 2016, the Heritage and Stabilization Fund recorded a net asset value of US$5.55 billion and seven years later it was US$5.5 billion after reaching US$5.6 billion at the end of July 2023 due to the strength of the equity market that month.
He said, “Our Fund has achieved this resilience, while other sovereign wealth funds lost up to 20% of their value.”
Imbert said, “Our Heritage and Stabilization Fund was established in 2007 to preserve wealth for the benefit of multiple generations and to provide for fiscal stabilisation.
“The mandate was subsequently expanded in the face of Covid-19 to include fiscal contingency purposes, for example, expenditure related to preserving lives and livelihoods emanating from a global health emergency.”
He said, “It needs to be emphasised that in the seven years since 2016, the net asset value of the Heritage and Stabilization Fund has remained in the vicinity of US$5.5 billion, virtually the same level as in 2016.
“However, withdrawals over the last seven years for fiscal contingency have amounted to US$1.9 billion – for financial support of the population during the Covid-19 pandemic and fiscal stabilisation during periods
of extreme petroleum revenues decline.
“On the other hand, US$346 million has been deposited, for the benefit of future generations, by this Government into the Fund, arising from the 2022 oil revenue windfalls.”
