IMF and the slow Belizean economy
It is now known how much, but needed foreign exchange was lost today when the visitors did not make it to shore. Well, a statement by the 2010 Article IV Consultation Mission to Belize issued in Belmopan today contains more bad news. According to the statement from Mario Garza, the Chief of the International Monetary Fund mission to Belize, discussions were held in June with the relevant sectors on the economic outlook for 2010. While figures were not specified, the IMF mission’s preliminary report confirmed that economic activity stagnated in 2009 and that recovery is still narrowly based, in fact only one or two sectors are likely to improve. The IMF expects growth to resume modestly allowing foreign reserves to stabilize at just over three months of imports of goods and services. But most alarming is that despite tax measures, the overall deficit is likely to increase in the next financial year based on an early forecast of the first two months of the financial year, that being April and May. The mission prescribed restraining the growth in current spending; prioritizing investment; and placing the pension system on a strong and sustainable footing, which normally means cutting back on salaries and pensions. For a full text of the statement click here.
Check out how everyone is quick to comment on the more scandalous stories but no one comments on this more pressing issue of our national deficit and economic growth.
How “safe” is our currency? Given the horrible state of economic affairs…. any risks of de-valuation?
Right, average belizean cannot even locate Belize on the world map and you think they knows what IMF is?
Whenever you hear feedback from the IMF reports its always doom and gloom on the horizon for Belize. You know what this means right??? ….Higher taxes!!! thats what it means and our currency devalues. How do you think these first world countries keep the third world countries in the sad states they are in today?? They keep throwing us money over and over so our country’s dept keeps going up and up. We are too poor to pay it all back and they know this all too well…..so what do they do??? They provide the government with “recommendations” to come up with a way to get their monies back. And to solve this, the government has no choice but to raise taxes or devalue our currency. It’s like someone telling you they are going to kill you but you have to decide how you want to die and in which way. The government surely doesn’t want to devalue our currency,so they raise our taxes and so the endless cycle of dept continues to sink our country further into the hole..
RedBwai, I couldn’t say it any better, but at the end of the day, we the poor get the ….. end of the stick as usual and suffer.
UDP and PUP r no longer doing anything good for this country. We need another party with different and fresh ideas for belize, these two parties are just messing up our lovely belize. We need jobs for every one and well paid wages. The reason for this is that the cost of living is so high inb belize and the salary is so low. We all want a government that will think on the benefits of the people.