Bankers' Association (BATT) president Richard Young has said he is looking forward to the national Budget with "guarded optimism".

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced on Wednesday in Parliament that Budget day will be on October 1.

"To me the secret for really mobilising this economy now is implementation. That is the most critical. There is too much talk and we need to get things done," Young told the Express yesterday via telephone.

The Budget will be delivered by Young's former colleague and former vice president of BATT, now Finance Minister, Larry Howai.

"We expect (Howai) will (not only be delivering) bad news, he has to balance it. Everyone is waiting for good news. But I feel land and building taxes will most likely come back. I feel the fuel subsidy will have to be addressed. We will probably see an increase in the price of gasoline and possibly diesel," but not the level of international prices, he said.

"I think the government must recognise they have to do this in the medium term—they can't do it overnight. I think he mentioned no new taxes so we can assume the tax rates will remain the same," Young added.

Young said he believed the government— now in midterm—will make every effort to ramp up spending.

"The economy has been very flat in the last two years—that's not the government's fault. It's the whole world. Hopefully we can get the highway and other major infrastructural projects off the ground. We hope they can really implement and execute to get the economy going," he said.

Specifically to the banking sector, Young said if the economy takes off, then lagging loan demand will increase.