Chamber Weighs In on IMF Country Report on Belize

Nikita Usher

The annual report compiled by the International Monetary Fund which focuses on Belize’s economic performance includes recommendations for the growth and strengthening of certain areas of production, distribution and trade, as it relates to the consumption of goods and services.  The business community is presently reviewing the IMF report ahead of the 2019 fiscal calendar and hopes that government will also be receptive to its recommendations.   According to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a lot more can be done to grow the economy.

Nikita Usher, President, Belize Chamber of Commerce & Industry

“Well I think the Chamber, right now as we speak to that, we had written to the prime minister a few weeks ago.  If you notice, the IMF report did require some growth.  We felt that that warranted some commendations to the government, though it’s not at the levels that we would want to see it.  Certainly we are doing some strong reviews of it, particularly because we are making preparations to go into a budgetary exercise with the government and we are making preparations to go into budgetary exercise with the government and we are extending our arms to hope and pray that they can come to the table and let’s discuss it as one.  We certainly feel that although they might have shown some growth it’s not sufficient growth.  We still feel that the economy is at a point where we need to see much more growth than where it is now.”

Isani Cayetano

“I know you guys are coming out of a meeting today, was that one of the items discussed among members of the Chamber?”

Nikita Usher

“We have an economic counsel that works within the Chamber, made up of part of our membership here and that committee works separately and reports back to the EC.  It’s in progress as we speak and October is very early but budgetary work for the government starts as early as October, so we are trying to prepare ourselves in hope that there will be consultation around the table with the Government of Belize.”