Belize's economy continued to languish in August. Figures release today show that imports for last month were down 15.2 percent or $25.8 million dollars when compared to august of last year.
The main areas of decline were the commercial free zones, and oil imports.
Imports into the free zone were down by 42.8% and imports of Mineral Fuels and Lubricants' went down by 55 percent. The SIB says "this decline was attributed mainly to the smaller quantities of butane, regular and bunker C fuels that were imported for the month. Furthermore, the country purchased no premium and kerosene fuels during August of this year."
August's exports were also down, by almost a third when compared to the previous year.
And most of that is about sugar. The SIB says that "A steep drop in sugar earnings was the main reason for the notable decline in the total exports…Revenues from this commodity were down by $19.6 million," to just $4 million.
The SIB says this was "due primarily to variations in the schedule of bulk sugar shipments between last year and this year."
Basically, August of last year saw exports of the high-profit bulk sugar, while only bagged sugar was shipped during August of this year.
There was also sharply diminished revenue from lobster products.
Overall, exports for the first 8 months of the year are down 15.7 percent compared to the same period last year.
