Economic Growth Expected in 2015

Dean Barrow

With that look at the projected deficit and surplus for 2014-2015, the Prime Minister turned to the outlook for the rest of the year, and expressed optimism and an expectation of economic growth.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“The Central Bank of Belize conservatively expects G.D.P. growth to decelerate to between two percent and two point five percent. They feel that the tail winds that drove the 2014 expansion will moderate. As an aside, their native caution has been confounded before. Indeed, just last year they had forecast under three percent. But we did over a full percentage point better than they estimated. In any case, production of the export crops (sugarcane, banana and citrus) should continue to increase, though by a smaller magnitude than in 2014. Hydro-electricity generation has been trending downward recently due to drier weather, and petroleum extraction has been on its inevitable finite decline. On the other hand, underpinned by improvement in the economies of Belize’s major source markets, arrivals of stay-over tourists are projected to grow by approximately five percent, and this should lift activity across the associated service sub-sectors. A further boost should come from growth in government services as road infrastructural works aggressively continue and outlays on BIL’s district sporting facilities begin to ramp up. Inflation is expected to remain subdued at between one percent and one point five percent, as the lower cost of fuel in world markets should continue to suppress the prices of a wide cross-section of goods and services in the CPI basket.”