Musa: Trading U.S. on black-market must stop

It’s no big secret that the easiest place to change Belize money into U.S. currency is out on the street. But the Government of Belize says that given the current foreign exchange crisis, all that must stop. Prime Minister Musa and Minister of Budget Planning Ralph Fonseca met with members of the financial and productive sectors and senior staff of the Central Bank to discuss ways of curbing currency exchange on the black market. According to Prime Minister Musa, the old ways of doing things must change and change soon.

Prime Minister Said Musa

“We need to come up with solutions, so we’ve been discussing various options today, to see how we can improve the foreign exchange situation. Whilst of course, we are fully committed to the exchange rate of two to one, we need to ensure that the productive sector in particular gets all the necessary foreign exchange that they need because we are seeking now to expand the economy. We must continue to increase the economic activity and foreign exchange is necessary to bring in the imports, to bring in the equipment. So it’s important that we have this dialogue, it’s an ongoing process, and I also briefed them on the fact that we will be presenting a revised budget to the National Assembly with a view to dealing with the new realities arising from the September eleventh terrorist act, which has affected the entire global economy, including Belize, as well as the effects of Hurricane Iris. How that has impacted on the economy and steps that we are now taking to address those issues and to move forward.”

One area the Government will be keenly inspecting is the Corozal Free Zone; a sector that is supposedly only allowed to use U.S. money. But News 5 understands that as much as ninety percent of the business transactions are done in pesos.