Barrow Says There’s No Reason to Panic

Dean Barrow

The letter from the Central Bank seemed a dire forecast, even with the Ashcroft-request payment aside. There is talk of the economy contracting two percent in the first quarter of this year, a significant drop in revenue from the Free Zones, marginal foreign currency inflows from tourism and falling exports. As we told you on Thursday, it is as close as we’ve ever gotten to an official declaration that the economy is in crisis. But the PM says there’s absolutely nothing to be alarmed about.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“It is not that there is currently a foreign exchange problem or let me again be completely candid, straightforward with you—to an extent that there is a bit of tightness in the system, that has to do more with the loss of correspondent banking relationships and the difficulties, the sort of round tripping almost or the circuitous journey; that for example credit card settlements, payments in U.S. dollars must make before they come back into the country since some banks, in particular the Belize Bank—the largest bank by market share—does not have a proper correspondent banking relationship. So that has caused some sort of tightening. But that apart, there is no immediate problem. The governor is pointing out that unless we do certain things—and this is not new; you can get it from the IMF report—in 2020 with the advent of the full force of the super bond, we can hit a wall. Well I am here to assure you that we will do whatever is necessary to ensure that that doesn’t happen.”