A number of countries, including Jamaica, have received loans from the IMF at significantly low interest rates. Belize is on a lengthy waiting list for a loan of thirty-eight million U.S. dollars from the International Monetary Fund for COVID relief. The application was filed sometime in May and while government remains optimistic that it will […]
The payout of loans applied for by government from various international financing institutions, including the Inter-American Development Bank, I.D.B., has been sluggish owing to the many processes that are undertaken following the application. PM Dean Barrow said at the start of the pandemic that he was expecting a hundred million dollars from COVID Relief. Those […]
Everywhere the financial crunch is being felt; at the National Institute for Culture and History, termination letters, dated June twelfth, were issued to eleven persons, including two directors as part of its cost-saving measures following a cut in G.O.B.’s subvention as well as a drop in revenue. In May, members of staff were placed on […]
Fifty percent of government’s revenue which came from tourism has disappeared because of the COVID-19 crisis and it has been forced to streamline its expenditure in order to make up for the massive shortfall. According to Financial Secretary Joseph Waight, even with a rebound in tourism in the months ahead the revenue stream will not […]
Government has been struggling to meet its monthly wage bill as a result of the economic meltdown left in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. The months of April and May were particularly rough for government as it struggled to maintain the wage bill amid the countrywide state of emergency which brought economic activity to […]
The increase in the price of LPG, which was announced on Monday, is not sitting well for consumers and three former LPG importers as the country battles with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The prices went up by thirty-eight cents per gallon which, combined with a first increase, means that consumers are spending sixty-nine […]
As we have reported, the National Institute of Culture and History had been running on financial trouble for months. The Minister of Education Patrick Faber had raised the alarm on May thirteenth and President Sapna Budhrani had said she was putting together a plan to get them out of the hole. When the lockdown started, […]
There is some consideration that the Unemployment Relief Programme will re-open as joblessness is on the increase. The initiative closed in April but since then hundreds others feeling the pain of having lost jobs. The biggest chunk of unemployed persons is in the tourism sector, more than five thousand lost their jobs in the food […]
The Prime Minister has said that Belize will get in the range of one hundred million dollars from the international financial institutions to assist with COVID-19. The funding, however, is coming in spurts as the economy continues to shrink. Kalilah Enriquez Reynolds is a well-known Belizean who is the Business Editor at Nationwide News Network […]
Households across the country are bracing for a price hike that is coming their way. The Central American importers, such as Gas Tomza, Zeta Gas and Belize Western Energy Limited can no longer bring in LPG and their fight is still before the courts. Today, the Belize Bureau of Standards released the listing of the […]
Aside from having to paying more for LPG, consumers will also get hit with a jump in the prices for gasoline. Regular fuel will increase by seventy-six cents per gallon to retail at eight dollars and eighty-four cents per gallon. The new prices go up at midnight, so you will be spending more for regular […]
It’s June fifteenth, an important date on the calendar for fishermen. It means it is the start of the lobster season. But this year, fishermen are not happy about the price of lobster. You’ll recall we told you on Friday night that fishermen are looking at twelve dollars a pound; this is less than fifty […]
The Christian Workers Union and the Port of Belize Limited are battling over salary cuts. In every sector, businesses have had to take cuts to survive. So the P.B.L. on Friday issued a press statement in which it said that it will go ahead to cut salaries of workers due to the financial challenges brought […]
Last week we told you about enterprising chocolatier Julio Saqui of Che’il Mayan Chocolate in Maya Center Village. Tonight, Saqui shares his experience on the hardships COVID-19 has created for his chocolate brand and how he adjusts the way he conducts business to keep Che’il Mayan Chocolate afloat during this pandemic. Here’s the story. […]
On June fourth, Prime Minister Dean Barrow released a pre-recorded video statement announcing the launch of a thirty-million U.S.-dollar treasury note. The PM said it is the first-of-its-kind Central Bank initiative that aims to fix Belize’s foreign exchange woes. Barrow said that the monetary instrument is a special offering with a tenor of five years and […]
Opposition Leader John Briceño says he was left in the dark on the treasury note and that Prime Minister Dean Barrow failed to discuss it with the National Oversight Committee or with members of the Economic Oversight Team. With debt at record levels, Briceño says that the note raises many questions and concerns, including what […]
The government’s U.S. thirty-million-dollar treasury note is a means to attract much needed foreign exchange. The aim, according to the PM, is to attract Belizeans who hold U.S. dollar accounts overseas to “relocate this capital to a safe, fixed-income asset of the highest credit quality available in Belize.” According to the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry, […]
On Tuesday night, you heard about the financial troubles of the owners of night clubs that remain closed due to the COVID-19 lockdown. On the entertainment strip on Princess Margaret Drive, the once booming businesses are facing loss of income and possibly permanent closure. Food vending and other small businesses owned by enterprising individuals remain […]
The Government’s Unemployment Relief Programme was closed off to the public on April twenty-fourth, less than a month after it was launched. More than eighty thousand applications were received and a little more than fifty percent of that number was approved. However, those who were approved have been complaining that they have not received any […]
The International Monetary Fund has been advising the government for years that there is a need for pension reform, cutting down on the wage bill and retrenchment in the public sector. PM Dean Barrow has managed to dodge those economic prescriptions. The Prime Minister has said that the IMF and IFIs will extract their pound […]
Salary cuts have been an ongoing exercise across most companies and quasi-government agencies. Earlier this week, the National Sports Council informed its employees that their monthly grant from the Ministry of Sports had been reduced by forty percent. Of an estimated one hundred and ninety thousand dollars that is earmarked for salaries and other expenses […]
Most businesses are now open, from hotels to casinos to boledo, but tonight, we have the story of those that are not. Along the entertainment strip on Princess Margaret Drive, Belize City, night life has come to halt. Since the COVID-19 lockdown was imposed at the beginning of April, night clubs were shuttered and have […]
Earlier today, the Government introduced the first-of-its-kind fixed rate notes totaling thirty million U.S. dollars, as a means of raising much needed foreign exchange. The business community has sounded the alarm that commercial banks and other lending institutions have considerably reduced the limit of U.S. dollars on credit cards for private and corporate accounts. This, […]
Demand for foreign exchange is significantly high since a majority of goods sold on the retail floor are imported. Those items are purchased in U.S. dollars. Foreign exchange, on the other hand, is also earned through various means, including tourism, which accounts for forty percent of those earnings. According to Nikita Usher, President of the […]
Is a thirty million U.S.-dollar treasury note the short term fix to Belize’s foreign exchange woes? Well, tonight the Prime Minister says this first-of-its-kind Central Bank initiative has the government’s full support. As the economic impact of the COVID-19 barrels down on the country and commercial banks place limits on credit card spending, the PM […]
