Business Sector Also Looks Back at Impact of Pandemic Since March 2020

Katherine Meighan

Belize’s business sector is also taking stock of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the country since the first case was announced on March 23, 2020. This morning on Open Your Eyes, Katherine Meighan, of the Belize Chamber of Commerce said the B.C.C.I. and BELTRAIDE have examined the startling numbers.

Katherine Meighan, Belize Chamber of Commerce

“Out of the gate it was pretty tremendous. I was just doing some reflection and going back through some statistics, some numbers, to try and identify. When we compare statistics from B.C.C.I., we did do some internal surveying from our members. And also there was from BELTRAIDE. They had kicked in and were trying to identify from the various resources and connections and communication networks they had. We are looking at fourteen, something in the mid teens, in terms of closures. Right? That was primarily the tourism industry. And now we know, we knew, but now we know numbers, how significant the tourism industry was to our economy. Forty percent of G.D.P. for instance. We saw high eighties; we saw eight-five, eight-seven percent of businesses saying we are going to be impacted. And we are predicting expected losses. We saw some of the big numbers coming in to March, April, twenty-three percent unemployment, or loss of jobs. We also saw the solutions, and the silver linings, and lessons learned. We also saw a lot of businesses saying we do not want to downsize. In reviewing all these we see that businesses were asking for help to determine, ways to retain our employees.”