PM Briceño Presents Government’s 2021 Fiscal Performance

John Briceño

Belize’s economic recovery has surpassed all predictions for timelines given by the Briceño Administration and the IMF.  It is on this achievement that his government presented its second annual budget in the House of Representatives this morning.  it was a full house in Belmopan where the gallery was open to the public for the first time since the pandemic began two years ago. All were present from the government side, but on the opposition bench, former party leader Patrick Faber was noticeably absent and Queen Square Area Representative Denise “Sista B” Barrow was also a no-show.  The presentation of the General Revenue Appropriation 2022-2023 Bill went on for the better part of two hours.  Prime Minister John Briceño outlined his administration’s financial performance in 2021, as well as projections for fiscal year 2022-2023. Beginning with government’s performance over the past financial year, PM Briceño asserted that government’s achievement has been remarkable. This, says PM Briceño, includes a national workforce of one hundred and seventy-four thousand employed, a banking system with seven hundred million dollars in liquidity, and roughly five months of import cover in Central Bank reserves.

Prime Minister John Briceño

“What has been achieved in our first budget year is truly remarkable. Across the land, a new day is dawning. The economy is bouncing back. Belizeans are returning to work in larger numbers than ever before. The Belize dollar is strong again. Default and devaluation has been reverted and confidence in the government has been restored. Today, with pride, I will share a progress report unmatched in our forty one years of independence. The story kind is of a Marco economic and fiscal house on fire. When we took office, less than sixteen months ago, transformed now to a house whose rehabilitation is outclassing regional peers and overshooting expectations. I remind this assembly of what this administration inherited, an economy weighted down by corruption and incompetence, battered by COVID-19 lockdown, strangled by rocketing debts and deficits, squeezed by costly credit, beset with surging unemployment and bereft of self belief and common sense solutions. Belize 2021 national economic rebound may be as high as twelve point five percent’ according to the I.M.F., twice the rate of Latin America and Central American regions, in fact, save for Guyana and its crude oil bonanza, Belize Is the fast growing economy amongst all countries in the North, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Our overall budget performance this year will be five hundred and twenty seven million dollars better than the last fiscal year.”