Is Belize’s Dollar Under Threat from Economic Issues?

John Briceño

For as long as Belizeans can remember, the exchange rate peg has been at two Belize dollars to one U.S. dollar. The Government has tried mightily to keep it that way, but a number of local financial experts are starting to utter one of those dreaded “D” words – devaluation. So could a Belize dollar worth less help the economy more? It is not a comfortable situation for P.U.P. leader John Briceño, even as he pointed out the current problems Belize has with sourcing U.S. dollars for businesses and other buyers.

John Briceño, P.U.P. Leader

“I certainly do not support that. And that issue about the –the whole issue of a devaluation of the Belizean dollar was brought up by none other than the former Governor of the Central Bank, who is a known U.D.P. – remember, he was part of the A.C.B., and once he got a cushy job, he forgot about the reforms that he was pushing for – he was the one who brought that up. And we have been saying, when you look at our reserves, how quickly they have been going down – while there is enough right now to cushion, or enough right now to have, I think it’s about four months of imports. But when you look at where we were to where we are, you see it’s going on a downward slide. And, our productive sector, they are not performing well; the foreign currency is not coming in that can cover the amount that we are spending. So it is something that is very, very troubling, and it is something that I don’t wish to happen of course not.”