The Statistical Institute of Belize recently released statistics pointing to an unemployment rate of fourteen point two percent and an inflation rate of point five percent. As far as the economy is concerned, those statistics are relatively positive indicators, but the reality is that the perception on the streets is far different. In the […]
Seven bills were passed today in the house. But the real purpose of today’s House Sitting had to do with a threat by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force. In November, the CFATF announced that it would be blacklisting both Belize and Guyana for non-compliance in addressing deficiencies in the laws on money laundering as […]
Brace up because as of the beginning of the upcoming fiscal year, water rates will see an estimated six and a half percent increase in the cost per gallon. The increase is less than the sixteen percent applied for by Belize Water Services Ltd. to the Public Utilities Commission in late December. The PUC, in […]
The Statistical Institute of Belize today hosted a press briefing to provide an update on comparative unemployment, inflation and external trade statistics for 2013. Traditionally the institute is accessed only through releases or visits to the website…and frequently, those statistics are perceived to be manipulated for state purposes. That’s because public perception is a weighty […]
Consumers of butane, that’s just about every household, restaurant or hotel in the country, are bracing for an additional increase in the cost of fuel. Earlier today, the Belize Bureau of Standards, through a press release, announced a spike in the controlled price of liquid petroleum gas. The increase is countrywide and varies according to […]
A recent survey indicating the economic freedoms of countries around the world ranks Belize at number one hundred and fifteen of one hundred and seventy-eight reviewed. With a score of fifty-six point seven, Belize succeeds Brazil on the 2014 index, and is categorized as mostly unfree. To put its rating into perspective, Belize is twenty-first […]
The Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association has finally signed an agreement with the Belize Sugar Industries and its parent company, the American Sugar refinery. The parties penned the deal at about five this evening at the B.S.I. Staff Club in Orange Walk Town. We can report that while in principle, farmers will be getting payment […]
While there is a formal signing which ends the months-long impasse between B.S.I. and the B.S.C.F.A., it is an uneasy truce. There are farmers who support the start of the crop, and farmers who believe the crop should be delayed until B.S.I. makes a commitment to pay for bagasse, in writing. But NONE of the […]
The BSCFA and B.S.I. will go back to the negotiating table in Orange Walk on Wednesday afternoon. With one week to go before the imposed deadline of January fifteenth, time is running out for all parties. After a meeting last week, the eighteen branch representatives of the BSCFA voted to bring B.S.I. in to talk […]
The Statistical Institute of Belize has issued the Consumer Price Index or CPI for September 2013. Not surprisingly, for consumers who have been feeling the pinch, the statistics show that prices crept up by zero point eight percent higher than last September. The cause is due to price increases in the categories of Transportation, Housing, […]
With the walkouts out of the way, we turn to some of the important matters which came out in today’s House sitting. First…the National Bank of Belize. It opened its doors in September, and today Prime Minister Dean Barrow reported that two point six million dollars in mortgage financing has already been disbursed, with another […]
Months ago the government took control of the International Merchant Marine Registry (IMMARBE) because it claimed that the European Union would have imposed sanctions on fleets carrying the Belize flag of convenience. It placed the registry directly in the Ministry of Finance and introduced a Bill on High Seas Fishing. But last month, the European […]
With only six days to go for the scheduled opening of the sugar crop, there is no resolution yet or in sight, for that matter, in the standoff between cane farmers and the Belize Sugar Industries. This afternoon, Prime Minister Dean Barrow, at the request of the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association, met with representatives […]
Belize is facing plenty trouble from the European Union over illegal fishing in the high seas and an even more dangerous threat from the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force because Belize has failed to address deficiencies in CFATF laws. The task force is threatening to disrupt the commercial banking industry if Belize doesn’t comply with […]
The Taiwanese Embassy today hosted its annual end of year Christmas luncheon with its partners in tourism to express its appreciation to the good relations with stakeholders. Although both countries are miles apart in culture, size and economy, there are some similarities in the tourism product. According to Ambassador of Taiwan to Belize, David Wu, […]
Discussions on a salary increase for teachers and public officers, so very loud earlier in the year, have apparently been muted. The unions appeared deflated in the face of government’s hard line that there is no money in the coffers. After public statements by the Prime Minister that government’s coffers are now overflowing with millions […]
As you know by now, the European Union has blacklisted Belize for not doing enough to curb illegal fishing. That is bad, but even worse is the news of the blacklisting by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force, which describes Belize as one of the countries that have not complied with addressing deficiencies in the […]
Back to the press conference hosted by the Opposition. Prime Minister Barrow on Wednesday went on record to give government’s full support to the stance of the cañeros that they should receive payment for bagasse. P.U.P. leader, Francis Fonseca, today stated his government’s position, and it is the same. But that’s where any accord ends, […]
The impasse between cane farmers and B.S.I. is still holding strong…and latest developments up to Tuesday evening were that Prime Minister Dean Barrow had been asked by the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association to intervene. Whether as a result of that letter or in acknowledgement of the critical nature of the situation, Cabinet met and […]
B.S.I. will not bend or bow where the issue of paying farmers for bagasse is concerned. That is the position coming out of a press conference hosted by B.S.I. and A.S.R. this morning in Belize City. On Sunday in Corozal, cane farmers unanimously voted to suspend delivery of cane to the factory whenever the season […]
Earlier this morning, at a press conference, B.S.I. reps stated repeatedly that they have tried to get BSCFA to the negotiating table with no success. Of course, the bagasse payment won’t be on that table for discussion because B.S.I. says the BSCFA should take their cause to court. B.S.I. wants to discuss the cane purchase […]
There are five thousand three hundred registered cane-farmers in northern Belize. They are divided into eighteen branches which all operate under the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association. On Sunday, a significant portion of those farmers were at the Escuela Secundaria Tecnica Mexico auditorium in San Roman for a general meeting. On the agenda were financial […]
Currently, the ball is in B.S.I.’s court. What they do with it will have great impact on the industry in days to come. Experience has shown that cane-farmers are perhaps the most militant and determined protesters. They haven’t had to demonstrate that militancy so far because the rains and the deteriorated sugar roads have made […]
Belize’s former Minister of State Elvin Penner and current Minister of State Edmond Castro have made it onto the pages of one of the world’s leading news journals, the Economist. The Economist is a weekly magazine of news and opinions which is regarded as one of the most eminent of its kind. It provides coverage […]
Representatives from nineteen countries that make up CAIPA are currently meeting in Belize. The organization promotes foreign direct investment in the region and at its current annual general meeting it is banking that economic growth in the region will be stimulated by the private sector. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports. Isani Cayetano, Reporting The […]
