And while President Ma made it clear in diplomatic terms that his country no longer wishes to or needs to be the “Sugar Daddy” that it has been for so long, that’s not the only bad news for Belize’s economy. The statistical Institute of Belize reports that in the first quarter of 2009, the GDP contracted by 2.2% in real terms when compared with the same period of 2008.
According to the Institute, the main drivers behind the decline were the wholesale and retail and agriculture sectors. Wholesale and retail activity contracted a sharp 14%, a significant reversal from last year when it grew four percent in the same period. There was also a marked slow-down in trade evidenced by a 15.1 percent reduction in merchandise imports.
And the tourism downturn really hit home for hotels and restaurants which contracted by 10.7 percent, significantly worse than the previous quarter’s contraction of 1.3 percent. Stay-over tourist arrivals fell by a massive 11.0 percent while cruise ship arrivals also fell by 1.9 percent. According to the SIB, “Partly offsetting the declines in gross domestic product was private business and financial services which were up 10.4 percent in the first quarter. The construction and manufacturing sectors also provided a small boost to the economy reporting increases of 6.2 percent and 5.5 percent.”
