Although economy contracted, Barrow says he’s looking at the bigger picture
Dean Barrow
At the end of May, the Statistical Institute of Belize reported that the economy contracted in the first quarter of 2014. It wasn’t a huge contraction – just zero point four percent, but where the economy is concerned, any contraction is a cause for worry. Not really…says Prime Minister Dean Barrow. He’s disappointed of course, but claims that he’s looking at the bigger picture.
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“I am disappointed but of course you look at the mix and you see that while overall there has been the contraction that most of the, or very many of the key areas are doing extremely well – tourism, construction, government spending…while agriculture is not in that happy category. The fact is that ultimately the responsibility for the position is principally as a consequence of the decline in oil production, and that is not anything we can do about. I had spoken to Susan Morris at B.N.E. and she had given me the impression that that has now levelled off…that where we reached at the time I spoke to her is where we would stay because while Spanish Lookout continues to go down the Never Delay fields are picking up some of the slack and there were more wells going to be drilled at Never Delay. Obviously that was not the case in terms of this last quarter. The decline was quite dramatic and so while it is worrying because there is absolutely nothing we can do about that except to find more oil, I naturally prefer to concentrate on the fact that the traditional pillars of the economy are doing well, or in the case of agriculture, if there is a little bit of slippage there its easily explainable by the rains, by the strike at B.S.I. and in the case of citrus by greening and the unhappy confrontation crisis/stasis/paralysis situation that was the position until your wonderful government stepped in and solved it.”
This is the worse pm and gov. In the history of this nation nothing but thieves running the country filling their pockets with the hard earned po people money
Wonderful government my ass. The PM betta see di bigga picture that corruption and people out here suffering lead to change a government. At least pup used to hire we even when they know we da udp and money mi di flow to everybody.
This is exactly why Belize will never go forward. Why can’t people see that PUP and UDP are the same PUDP. People need to take off their political blinders and stop seeing in only red or blue. People are so blind and stupid in Belize, and it just irritates the hell out of me. This is what the political parties want us to be like. One party gets into power does a load of crap and angers the people. The opposing party then piggy back rides on the anger of the people and when they get into power they do the same crap that the previous party did. The politicians that are voted out don’t care because they enriched themselves enough for the next five years when they know that they once again will return to power. all they have to do is piggy back ride again on the poeple’s anger and frustration. People need to understand that these political parties are masters of brainwashing psychology and deception. They have this political game and “tricknology” down to a science. This entire system is a fraud that needs to be flushed down the dam toilet. Try proportinal representation with the right to dissolve the government on the vote of no confidence and see what will happen. They will never want that. Politicians would get the sense fast.