Things Look Dread fi 2021!

Chris Coye

The outlook for the upcoming financial year is not promising.  The Government of Belize has been operating in the red before the COVID-19 pandemic, which has only made matters worse for our local economy.  A new fiscal calendar will be rolled out on April first, but there won’t be any celebration.  Those twelve months will be dedicated to paying debts and steering the economy in a positive direction. As it stands, a debt of two billion dollars has accrued over the past ten years, which does not include the Super Bond. According to Minister of State Chris Coye, there is an existing shortfall of thirty percent in government revenues.

Chris Coye, Minister of State, Finance

“We have the debt, in a matter of a decade, having increased by roughly two billion dollars, so we have roughly close to four point two billion dollars in debt.  This is not all external debt.  Our external debt is in the range of, with the commercial creditors one point two billion, but the total is around one point seven and we have a domestic debt now which skyrocketed over the past few years to around one point three or one point four billion dollars.  That puts us in a difficult situation as day in day out we have a shortfall.  Thirty-six cents out of every dollar that is spent is being borrowed right now and that’s where we have a truly difficult situation so far as government finances are concerned.  We really have a shortfall of thirty percent in revenues, over three hundred million in revenues but not a comparable shortfall in expenditures.  So because of that, because of expenditures in emoluments, for example, wages and salaries having actually gone up, marginally so but having gone up slightly and capital expenditures having gone up around seventy million dollars to three hundred and forty-six million, the imbalance is further exacerbated.”