Economy

This chapter contains information on hotels, government agencies and other listings, as well as useful tips for visitors on a range of topics such as visa requirements, currency and transportation, among others.

The smaller island of Tobago has a history of colonial rule by a succession of different European powers, including Spain, France and Britain, and in 1889 the British government first grouped the island with Trinidad under a single colonial administration. Trinidad & Tobago sought and achieved independence from British colonial rule in 1962 and became a repub¬lic in 1976. A significant...

At first glance, the newly elected government of Trinidad and Tobago faces a formidable first year, marked by one of the deepest slumps in energy prices seen in recent decades. According to provisional data by the Central Bank of T&T, the twin-island economy contracted by 2.1% in 2015, with GDP down 3% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of the year, reflecting a 5% contraction in the...

Trinidad and Tobago stands out in the Caribbean and the Americas as a comparatively wealthy, hydrocarbons-based economy with rich and diverse cultural traditions and a robust democratic system. The twin-island country has a population of 1.35m people and a per capita GDP that places the country among the wealthiest in the Americas, behind the US and Canada, and ahead of most Caribbean and...

Home to 3.6m people spread over 19,016 sq km, Malaysia’s most southerly state, Johor, has long played a key political and economic role in the country’s development. On the Strait of Malacca and sharing a border with Singapore, it has the country’s busiest trans-shipment hub and benefits from its position at the crossroads of some of the world’s most important trading routes. Over the past...