PM Says Belize in a Better State Today than in 2020

Prime Minister John Briceño

And the question was also put to the Prime Minister about the state of the Belizean economy, in light of what his fiercest critics have been saying. The PM pointed to actions that his government has taken since assuming office back in November 2020. He says that increasing the minimum wage, along with subsidies the government has given to various members of the productive sector are only two of the things they’ve done to help the people. 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“Whilst things are not perfect, I think that Belize is much better off than where it was when we took it over in November of 2020, that we have been addressing the main issues: the issue of crime, the issue of the economy, the issue of unemployment, the issue of homelessness, the issue of health, education, and even the cost of living. The opposition loves to shout about cost of living and what we’re not, that we’re not doing anything, but what they do not tell you – if they were to be truthful, they will tell you that we import. That’s first of all, because we import most of what we eat. Secondly, most of our food items do not pay taxes. It’s not like we could take away the taxes. Thirdly, we have not raised taxes. And fourthly, we have done a lot to be able to, in many instances, pay subsidies. We’ve paid subsidies to the bus [operators] to try to hold down the transportation costs for employees. We have managed to pay subsidies even to the bakers to be able to try to control the price of bread. I know that people worry about themselves, but when you look around, for instance, in Chetumal, a Pan Bimbo costs almost $4 and look at where the bread is right now in Belize, but that is not enough. And lastly, on March 1st, what we did, we raised the minimum wage despite the fact that the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry were, clamouring that we should not do it, that we should do it in phases. But we said, no, we need to do this immediately. By raising the minimum wage, more than 30,000 persons’ wages were increased.”