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NEW Housing Programs for Q2 and Q3 of the financial years, says Minister Robinson 

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By Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer 

 

 

#TurksandCaicos, May 23, 2023 – The Turks and Caicos’ Housing Policy was officially passed in March, now armed with cash from the newly approved budget, TCIG is greenlighting promised (and desperately needed) living solutions for residents as they struggle with high rent and mortgage prices. Jamell Robinson, Minister of Physical Planning and Infrastructure Development updated the public during the National Budget Debate on Thursday May 18th.

“We are looking to develop online applications for two of the housing projects by the second quarter,” he said, indicating that they were attempting to then officially launch two programs by the third quarter of the financial year.

The Ministry of PPID had promised three initial projects would be put into motion once the policy was passed. They included Housing Concessions for Residential Developers, Home Improvement Programs, and Community Urban Renewal and Infilling. All three programs incentivise the construction or improvement of long term rentals or residences which are in short supply in the Turks and Caicos currently.

Robinson had already explained Project Number 1: Housing Concessions as he spoke with Drexwell Seymour on RTC’s Financially Speaking, it could give residents building long term residential homes (not AirBnB’s or the like) a 100 percent duty exemption on their building materials.

“We are looking to give anyone who is building five units or more up to 100 percent duty free so you can make your application,” Robinson had said.

Residents may be looking to take the Government up on its offer as many are already making applications for building permits to erect apartments.

Based on the latest publicly available minutes from the planning department detailing a March 2023 meeting, conditional approval was granted to seven different developers for eleven new apartment buildings and one extension in Providenciales, which when complete, will add a total of 141 units to the housing market.

Robinson said the department was still tying the last of its loose ends including hiring more employees and making sure their offices were properly fitted before projects began in earnest.

The minister said the Housing Department had already received $3 Million to jump start the programs in the last fiscal period.

Finance

UK holds steady on interest rates 

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Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer 

 

#UnitedKingdom, September 24, 2023 – For the first time since 2021, the Bank of England has decided to ‘hold steady’ on interest rates rather than increase them.

The decision comes following an unexpected fall in inflation in the European country.

It means UK consumers’ interest rate remains at 5.25 percent.  According to the BOE reports tabled on September 21st, only 5 of the nine members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to keep the rate steady.

The Bank expects the inflation rate, currently at 6.7 percent, to reach the two percent target by mid-2025 and food inflation is going down.

But at the same time, the UK’s Gross Domestic Product GDP declined in July and growth is expected to stay weak, plus, unemployment is on the rise in the country.

“The Labour Force Survey unemployment rate rose to 4.3 percent in the three months to July, higher than expected in the August Report,” the bank explained.

The US also recently held steady on its interest rates after a significant period of increase.

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Finance

Canadian analysts watching for recession 

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Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

 

#Canada, September 9, 2023 – Financial analysts are watching the Canadian economy for the possibility of recession following a contraction in its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the second quarter of 2023, and a decision to keep interest rates at 5 percent.

The Bank of Canada decided to ‘hold steady’ on interest rates this Wednesday, a week after Information shared by Statistics Canada revealed the country’s GDP declined last quarter, failing to reach the over 1 percent growth that was predicted by economists.

“The slowdown was attributable to continued declines in housing investment, smaller inventory accumulation, as well as slower international exports and household spending,” Statistics Canada explained.

Central Banks in North American countries like Canada and the US have been hiking interest rates over the past year to balance out inflation. Both countries want inflation levels to remain at 2 percent.

A recession occurs when a market records negative GDP growth for two consecutive quarters. If Canada records another contraction in its GDP for the third quarter of the year, it will officially be considered to be in a recession.

In late 2022, the Royal Bank of Canada had predicted the country would fall into recession early this year because of cooling housing markets and high interest rates.

The country has not recorded a recession since the beginning of the pandemic.

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Finance

TCI Commercial Banks CAUTIOUS about LENDING, Report reveals

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By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

 

#TurksandCaicos, August 14, 2023 – Credit risk in the Turks and Caicos is decreasing; however, local banks are still very cautious with their lending practices, according to the latest annual report from the Turks and Caicos Financial Services Commission (2021-22).

The FSC Bank and Trust Department oversees the six banking institutions operating locally, their report indicated that the bank’s liquid assets grew massively because residents began to save more money.

“The increase in the sector’s assets was funded by customers’ deposits, which grew by 26.5 percent,” it said. That pushed assets between the six banks to $2.7 billion. Banks are turning a profit, just not as much as before COVID-19. Still, the cash was good enough that they could shutter loan loss provisions they had made.

Not only were customers depositing more money, but with the improved state of the local economy, residents wishing to borrow were resilient to the impact of COVID-19.

Also, fewer residents were defaulting on their loans, the FSC found, with a 29 percent drop in non-performing loans (loans in default), and because of that banks spent 40 percent less on provisioning (money used to cover loans in default). Only four percent of all the loans in the country were listed as non-performing, a decline from five point four (5.4) percent the period prior.

Despite this, fearing rising inflation, and health crises globally, banks responded with ‘conservative lending practices and risk appetites.’

This was at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Residents locally have complained bitterly about the difficulty they face in securing loans and Washington Misick, TCI Premier, has repeatedly put local banks on blast for de-risking and vowed to have the UK step in, to date there has been no change.

Meanwhile, five of the six banks recorded increases in assets and loan portfolios were smaller for four of them.

The FSC also revealed that with banks holding tight to the purse strings, an unregulated credit market had been allowed to flourish locally, which they said was a cause for concern.

“A growing non-bank lending market has emerged in the TCI, which creates competition for the banking sector. This increases the risk to the financial sector if left unregulated and should credit conditions deteriorate,” they explained.

Another concerning revelation is that Money Sending Businesses (MSBs), which are heavily patronized in the country because of the high level of expatriate workers, are taking a hit as well. This time because of high banking costs, de-risking and the emergence of alternate ways to send cash.

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