PM says nominal GDP growth for 2013 is no cause for worry
Dean Barrow
Prime Minister Barrow has stated that they are locked into the commitment, so even if revenues decrease next year, G.O.B. will still have to shin up. The next big issue on the agenda is the GDP. The Statistical Institute of Belize announced on Wednesday that GDP growth for 2013 was zero point seven percent, much less than was predicted by political pundits including the Prime Minister. The negligible growth is due largely to a decrease in oil production and problems in agriculture, some of it caused by incessant rains and some man-made. The PM says that it’s not as bad as it looks, and it is certainly no cause for worry.
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Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“The SIB has given the gross figure for the calendar year. By the time the financial year comes to a close on March thirty-first, we fully expect that that number will go up some—not much above one percent. As I tried to signal earlier, because of what has been happening with oil production declining even more rapidly than we had foreseen and because of the problem—some of it having to do with the rains—in the agricultural sector, some of it being manmade, we recognized—and the trend has been there from the start, we are not going to get the two point five percent GDP growth that we forecast last year. But we don’t think that it will be less than one percent; we are pretty certain that it will be just above one percent and we are not particularly worried because as the SIB explained, and as I tried to suggest to Honorable Briceño, don’t just look at the overall position. Look at it sector by sector. And with respect to the sectors that employ people on a large scale manner, we are okay and there is the fact now of this huge government infrastructure drive that will not only mean that there is going to be an uptake between December and March in terms of the GDP growth figure, but there is all this employment, all this disposable income, all this poverty alleviation that takes place thereby.”
When the prime minister talks, I do not worry, I laugh. la la la silly pied pipper, keep dreaming Belize all ok, ALI Akbar!!!
Mr. Barrow foreign governments are donating most of the monies to repair the highways in the country to prevent the restive population from exploding and disrupting their agenda in Belize. Forty thousand persons are unemployed in Belize and not all of them can work on government projects. When are you going to understand that Belize needs long term meaningful jobs to grow and implant economic , systemic structures to carry out growth. If cannot be masters of our economy in an incorruptible manner, then we will be doomed to eternal subservience.
Stop Rely on government for jobs. GOB can only facilitate job creation. It is up to the people of Belize to find their inner entrepreneur and start make things happen. GOB and the opposition can also retract politics from jobs here in Belize. our growth is stifled because everything in Belize has politics involved.