Senator Coye, “We have debt going down”

Christopher Coye

The opposition also accused the Briceño administration of plunging Belize further into debt, noting that thirteen loan motions have been introduced in the National Assembly since the P.U.P. took office. Well, Senator Coye denied the claim, accusing the opposition of misrepresentation and misleading Belizeans. According to Senator Coye, Belize’s debt is actually going down. Here is how he explained it.

Christopher Coye, Government Senator

“I think it is important to appreciate how the budget works. The list of loans that were approved before the house and senate over the past year and a half, I think you referred to thirteen loans, when you borrow for your house, as an example, you want to build a house. Let’s say the loan is a hundred thousand dollars, the bank doesn’t lend you the full hundred thousand upfront. You get it through stages as you go through your construction process, as you build your house. So, I have listened in the House and now before the Senate, as these big numbers of loans and motions and we are borrowing to the hills, but look at the data, statistics, what in fact is happening. When this government took office what was the debt, four billion. What was the GDP, less than poor? The economy contracted by sixteen, seventeen percent. So, we were at a hundred and thirty three percent debts to GDP. When we secured that blue loan arrangement, what was the debt to GDP? That was reduced by twenty five percent. We were down to a hundred and eight percent. Where we are now is eighty nine percent after the rebasing of GDP. We don’t have debt going up, we have debt coming down.”