Market Mood
This month’s question was put to businesses in both Tobago and Trinidad. The survey ran from 23 September to 30 September. Answers were written in a text box.
Who answered
Counted straight off the survey. Nothing was interpreted to get these numbers.
What they said
Of the 112 answers, 3 fitted no theme. Every answer was read and grouped with the answers saying the same thing. Each count is of real answers, not a score.
Horizontal bar of the themes
Of 112 answers, 3 fitted no theme. Both islands.
Stance by island
Where splitting a group leaves fewer than 20 people in a column, that group is reported as counts, never percentages. Trinidad is shown as counts only.
| Stance by island | Against | Mixed | In favour | No comment | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tobago | 40 | 14 | 12 | 17 | 83 |
| Trinidad | 12 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 29 counts only |
Of 112 answers. Both islands.
Four out of ten who answered took issue with the manner of the handover rather than the man himself — the objection is to the process, not to Stewart Young. Almost as many, 28 of 112, said plainly that it changes nothing for how they run their business, and a smaller group argued that continuity is worth having in the next eighteen months. 24 people declined to comment, which is itself a finding worth noting in a small business community.
Key insights
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01
Process, not person
The largest theme objects to how the succession happened, not to who it favours. Only a handful of answers criticised Stewart Young directly.
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02
A quarter said nothing
24 of 112 chose not to comment. In a place this small, that reticence is data, and it is worth reporting rather than hiding.
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03
Business first
28 answers came back to duty rates, FX and the cost of doing business, rather than to politics at all.
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04
Tobago and Trinidad broadly agree
The shape of the answers was similar on both islands. Trinidad answered 29 times, which splits too thinly across the four answers to carry percentages, so that row is counts only.
In their own words
Real answers from this month’s survey, shown under the theme they belong to. Names are never published.
“A party choosing its leader is one thing. Handing over the country is another. Nobody asked us.”
“Whoever sits in the chair, my duty rates do not change and my FX problem does not change.”
“I would rather a known quantity for the next eighteen months than a scramble.”
A season those who answered expect to turn
Those who answered expect the next six months to be better than the last six, and the confidence is strongest among the businesses closest to the visitor.
Two of the three business types fall under the floor once their answers are split three ways, so those rows are given as counts and not percentages. The next survey opens on 24 October.
Base: 112 answers, of which 3 did not fit any theme. Where splitting a group leaves fewer than 20 people in a column, that group is reported as counts and never as percentages.