Belizean Consumers Brace for Inflated Prices Due to Russian Invasion
It seems Belize will soon begin to feel some effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That is because one of the first things such conflicts trigger is a hike in fuel prices. If the latest price hikes on fuel are not bad enough, the road ahead for some small businesses looks rocky. Today News Five’s Marion Ali checking out the looming price increases.
Marion Ali, Reporting
It won’t be long before cost of living becomes even more unbearable. The signs are coming from people in every sector we spoke with on and off camera. In fact, vendors warned that you could expect to see significant increases as early as next week.
Rosita Rivero
Rosita Rivero, Indira Spices, Michael Finnegan Market
“This da old stock. The next one weh di come in Monday, everything gwein twice the price.”
Marion Ali
“So a dollar bag –”
Rosita Rivero
“Will be at least one-fifty. Black pepper, the things that we need everyday gone twice the price.”
Alyssa Majil
Alyssa Majil, Campos Meats
“Pork leg used to be like three-fifty, now it’s at five, so the cost of living is really hitting everyone right now. The war is going to affect the cost of living in general and I just got reports from the Mennonites that we’re expecting prices to go up so as much as I would like to keep my prices, eventually – I’ll do my best. We do the best to try and help out everyone.”
Howell Castaneda
Howell Castaneda, Vegetable Vendor, Michael Finnegan Market
“I talk to a farmer this morning and he di complain that the onion gone up drastically.”
Marion Ali
“Aha, so how much a pound will we be paying for onions this weekend?”
Howell Castaneda
“Ih wa have to be about two dollars a pound pan the table.”
Marion Ali
“Right now how much is it?”
Howell Castaneda
“One seventy-five. But ih gwein up to two dollars. The farmers are complaining that the cost of fuel is too high soh dehn have to raise, like the lady weh bring the coconut oil, it was sixty-five dollars for the case of small oil, and when she come last week she tell we that she have to add five dollars pahn each case.”
Rodwell Ferguson
The Minister of Transport, who is also in a bind with bus operators who have threatened to strike to force an ease on fuel prices, tried to reason that what is happening in Belize is not unique to us.
Rodwell Ferguson, Minister of Transport
“If you look on the Internet, the prices of every commodity across the world is rising because when there is a war it has an effect, not only where the war is but across the world. So I can foresee that the price of fuel could reach maybe two hundred dollars a barrel maybe in the next month.”
If that prediction is accurate, Ferguson explained that Belize’s economy will not be able to withstand a reduction on fuel taxes simultaneously with the reinstitution of teachers and public officers’ ten percent of their salary, as Prime Minister John Briceno had promised.
Rodwell Ferguson
“He committed to the public officers that he’s going to provide them with their ten percent. That by itself is some millions of dollars.”
What most people might also have to consider this coming Easter is to budget a bit more if you were travelling to San Pedro or Caulker. Boat fares went up by ten dollars round trip to both cayes two weeks ago. An employee of Ocean Ferry told News Five today that they had been absorbing the price hikes on fuel for as long as they could.
Marion Ali reporting for News Five.
An Ocean Ferry spokesperson told us since the change in their fares, they’ve already seen a twenty-five percent drop in passenger movement, so they predict that business will be slow this Easter.
