IMF, World Bank Impressed by Belize’s Economic Recovery

There is great news coming out of the Briceño Administration, following a recent trip by a high-level delegation headed by Junior Minister of Finance Chris Coye to Washington to meet with representatives from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The financial agencies are impressed with Belize’s economic recovery post the COVID-19 pandemic, so much so that the country will be used as an example to other nations. If you would recall, back in 2020, the debt to GDP ratio was approximately one hundred and thirty percent. That figure has since been reduced to eighty-nine percent and the projection is that it will decrease even further. Today, News Five spoke with C.E.O. Doctor Osmond Martinez of the Ministry of Economic Development who was part of the delegation to Washington.

Osmond Martinez

Dr. Osmond Martinez, C.E.O., Ministry of Economic Development

“The IMF and the World Bank are impressed with our macroeconomic indicators, looking at the forecast of where debt to GDP will be – and I will wait until the official figures are being produced – but it is forecasted that it will be where it has never been before in terms of reduction on the positive side, not on the negative side. Meaning that it has come up from a hundred and thirty-two point five percent of where we had inherited back in November 2020 and it has reduced. Right now it is at eighty-nine percent is our debt to GDP and the projection is that it will decrease some more. And the growth in terms of GDP is significant and there is also some good news in terms of the poverty census which we will disclose the figures once S.I.B. public the results. The projection is looking very good and so they are excited. Actually, we don’t have a problem to be a poster child to the IMF and World Bank right now. While other countries in the region – both in the Caribbean, South America, even the United States. You know United States practically is in an economic recession right now, Belize is in the trend of still having economic growth.”