A large part of the funds they received had also previously been used for non-productive purposes, be it high government spending, private consumption or excessive housing investment. To put it bluntly, some euroarea countries were living beyond their means prior to the crisis.
Accordingly, estimates from the Central Bank’s Quarterly Real GDP Index indicated that the domestic economy grew by a mere 0.2 per cent in 2012. So far into 2013, there are encouraging signs of a gradual recovery. Our preliminary estimates indicate that the Trinidad and Tobago economy grew by 1.7 per cent (year-onyear) in the first three months of 2013.