6 days ago, during the Briceno Government unveiling of its first-ever Belize Investment Summit, Chris Coye, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, disclosed publicly that the country's economy had grown by over 20% for the second quarter of this year when compared to the same period last year - when things were in a COVID-induced crash.
The Statistical Institute of Belize says that the growth was actually 22.3%. Now, that may sound good, but last year's second quarter is a record low in economic performance, and as viewers will remember, that was the time period when the former Barrow Government implemented the first COVID State of Emergency, which basically shut the country down.
But, with the return to some normalcy earlier this year, the industries have had a bit of time to recover near to pre-pandemic numbers. In a press conference hosted this morning, the SIB's Jefte Ochaeta gave a detailed breakdown of that improvement. Here's an excerpt from his extended presentation:
Jefte Ochaeta - Statistician I, SIB
"The GDP for the country of Belize was valued at 711.4 million dollars. This is an increase of 129.6 million dollars, or 22.3% when compared to the second quarter of 2020. For the first six months of 2021, the cumulative GDP estimate experienced an increase of 78.5 million dollars, or 6%, totaling 1 billion, 380 million dollars."
"As we can see in the bar graph that we have here, we see that the second-quarter estimates for 2021 have a significant increase in the growth rate, that of 22.3%, however, as we can also note, the year 2020 was a very odd year, as we all know. That was when the pandemic hit, and thus, economic progression went on a downward turn globally. And thus, now we can see, from the information that this is presenting to us, that the GDP is now recovering to some sort of normality. However, it's still not at the levels of pre-pandemic years."
"Tertiary sector activities contributed about 11.6 percentage points toward the growth rate of 22.3%. The total value change of the GDP was 129.6 million dollars, and tertiary services contributed 67.4 million dollars to the total value change. Also, it is important to note that taxes contributed 5.5% to the growth rate of the GDP, as the value change of taxes experienced was 32 million dollars for the second quarter of 2021."
"Starting with the sugarcane production for the second quarter of 2021, we observed that deliveries went up by 197 thousand metric tonnes, from 740 metric tonnes produced in quarter 2 of 2020, 937 thousand metric tonnes being harvested in the second quarter of the year."
"The livestock production increased by 64.8% for the second quarter of 2021, mainly due to an increase in all the activities, some industries of the livestock production, where cattle increased by 362.8%, pigs increased by 15.6%, and poultry production increased by 30.4%."
"The cattle production for the second quarter registered an increase of about 8,800 more heads being produced, reported, in the second quarter of 2021, compared to the 2,400 heads that were produced in the second quarter of 2020."
As you just saw, the total value for the goods and services for this year's second quarter comes close to the figures of 2019 and 2020. We asked the SIB if it was accurate to compare the pre and post COVID figures, and the Acting Director-General cautioned that it was not exactly a 1 to 1 comparison:
Diana Castillo-Trejo - Acting Director-General, SIB
"Last year, and especially the second quarter was probably the worse second quarter on record in terms of GDP. So, it just stands to reason that as we recover - and I think it's important to note as well that when we compare with pre-pandemic that we remember that we are still in the pandemic. So, conditions are not what they were pre-pandemic. So, even that comparison to say 2019 or 2018, it's kind of, perhaps, not the best comparison because circumstances are not yet what they were at that time. Growth at the rate of 20+%, certainly, is not something that is expected to be recorded on an ongoing basis going forward."
Exports Up
There's also a bit of good news to report on the country's external trade figures. According to the SIB's Tiffany Vasquez, imports for the first 7 months of this year are up by 22.8%, when compared to the same period last year. Here's how she made the point that the numbers are mimicking snapshots of the country's pre-pandemic trade:
Tiffany Vasquez - Statistician II, SIB
"For the period January to July of 2021, Belize's imports were valued at 1.1 billion dollars. This was a significant 22.8% growth, or an increase of 208.4 million dollars when compared to imports from January to July of 2020. As the months of April to July of last year saw COVID-19 restrictions impacting the flow of imports, as well as reduced demand for merchandise goods, due to the economic downturn, imports within this period hit extreme lows. Thereby, this 22.8% surge in imports is, for the most part, a return to normal import flows, mimicking pre-2020 imports. In addition to that, greater costs for shipping containers were also noted for this period."
"Imports grew across almost all commodity categories over the 7-month period. The categories of manufactured goods and other manufactures together rose by 64%, or 66.5 million dollars to 262.9 million, due to bigger imports of construction materials such as steel pipes, corrugated steel rods, and cement."
"Owing mostly to the greater cost of fuel, the mineral fuels, and lubricants category went up by 1/4th or almost 27 million dollars to 133.2 million."
"Imports into the Commercial Free Zones increased by 20%, also going roughly by 27 million dollars, to 159.4 million, due to purchases of footwear, cigarettes, and beer."
"The beverages and tobacco category more than doubled, rising by over 24 million dollars to 47.1 million, with heightened imports of beer meant for re-exportation. Imports of machinery and transport equipment increased by 13%, likewise growing by approximately 24 million dollars to 205.2 million, as the country imported more food and beverage processing machinery and tractor trucks."
"Domestic Exports also went up, growing by 5.8%, where animal feed and molasses contributed to that increase."
According to the SIB, exports for the month of July 2021 are up by 12.4%, when compared to the same month last year.
GOB Responds Inertly To Chiquibul Controversy
After days of competing press releases between the Friends for Conservation and Development - which co-manages the Chiquibul National Park and Boiton Minerals Limited - which has a mining license there - the government ministries of SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, CLIMATE CHANGE AND DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT THE MINISTRY OF NATURAL RESOURCES have put out a joint statement.
It's been in gestation for two whole days, but it doesn't say a whole lot. The release confirms that joint inspection of the mining operation and its activities was conducted by various government departments. The release says, quote,
"The visit revealed that several conditions of the Environmental Compliance Plan were not being met…the departments engaged the agents of Boiton Mining to initiate a process to rectify the issues identified..and bring the company into compliance with the ECP." End quote.
After that, in the only slightly steam comment, the release says, quote, "The Government of Belize takes this non-compliance seriously and will be applying the appropriate penalties and fines for these infractions."
But, it doesn't say what the fines - or the infractions are, for that matter. And it does not say clearly what the Government will do to protect the National Park.
COVID Update
Turning now to the Daily COVID report, the Ministry of Health and Wellness is reporting tonight on the 9th COVID casualty in the last 7 days.
1 Belizean died of COVID today, which brings the country's case fatality rate to 2.25%. Also, out of 1,743 tests that were completed, 110 COVID-positive patients were detected. That represents a daily positivity rate of 6.45%
Here's the Health Ministry's Claudette Dakers-Norales with a closer look at today's snapshot:
Cops Say Drug Plane Was Phantom
Turning now to police news - there was a report today that a drug plane had landed last night. The coast guard's boat has been circling the St George's Caye and Turneffe area on reports of this suspected drug plane. The ComPol explained that, up until this morning, they hadn't found any evidence to suggest that one had indeed crash landed.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"There were rumors going around that a plane have landed in the St George's Caye or Turneffe area, the coast guard have checked that are extensively and came up with nothing. I know this morning they are going to Turneffe area to see in fact that is so and so far there is nothing. Let me say that we normally operate through == who will get information as it comes to any incoming suspected air craft in our area and we did not get any yesterday so I'm not going to speculate at this time, we have no credible information to confirm or deny that information so at this time I will say we are going to wait and see if that is so."
Community Cares For Cops
It's not uncommon for us to report on crime on and around Jane Usher Boulevard - but that area is getting some help in the form of a new police booth on Curl Thompson Street.
It was inaugurated today in the presence of police, civilians, and members of the Citizen advisory committee. Here's more from the small but auspicious event.
There's a new and improved police booth on street in the Jane Usher area.
It's there to ensure police presence but also to ward off rising crime that, now more than ever, threatens to come to a head as the pandemic economic depression deepens.
Francis Williams, President, Citizen Advisory Committee
"Hence the reason we tried to activate this police booth. So that we can have a presence of police in this area at all times so that the citizens of this community can feel more secure and even be more secure with the officers present in the area. We're trying to get this not only in the Port Loyola area but also across the entire city and precinct two on a whole."
And work on the new police both isn't just a product of police labors, it's also thanks to the sweat of a few neighborhood residents, who battled through rainy weather and put their sweat into painting and making minor repairs on the police booth they now call their own.
Ashanda Gonguez, Neighbor
"For us as a community back here it really means a lot I mean it was time and overtime because normally we hardly see police presence behind her, so with the support and the help from the guys that do the work and to make sure that we have a good booth now I think the police presence will be a 100% for us at the back here and it will come in handy so I guess from now go back we'll see more back here and making good use of the booth."
And while the booth is essential in offering citizen security it also provides adequate working conditions for the cops who've been stationed in this area. We heard more on those considerations from Citizen advisory committee member Ms. Olga Gordon.
Olga Gordon, Member, Citizen Advisory Committee
"Two things, the rain and the sun. When the police get tired, and we know that they have to do a beat out there but they are human beings they get tired, they have somewhere to go and rest it has a restroom and everything and we can't leave them out there all day so there is somewhere possible that they can go and I pray that one will be set in every other area, every other division so that the police they can go, you see them walking in the sun, you see the rain coming, some of them are still in the rain. So it's important for them to have somewhere to go to."
US Embassy Donates to Police
And while those officers got a new booth, today the department got $90,000 US dollars worth of PPE's along with 3 all terrain vehicles. This donation comes from the US Embassy and will help officers to be safe from the virus as well as to reach areas inaccessible by vehicles. Today the Acting Chief of Mission, the ComPol and the Minister of Police all spoke on the donation.
Andie De Arment, Acting Deputy Chief of Mission, US Embassy
"The donation of PPE is worth almost 90 thousand US dollars and it's full covering, it's gloves, it's face masks, and this comes at a very important time as we've seen the third wave here in Belize with COVID infections and it's gonna help keep frontline workers like the police safe and healthier and we're really proud to do our part as US Embassy.. In terms of our ATV and UTV donation, that's worth 30,000USD and it's really gonna help the police and others get to remote areas that are normally harder to get to track down narco traffickers and other doing illicit activities."
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Belize is experience its second wave of COVID and COVID is already affecting our ranks, presently we have 20 officers who are positive and we have about 50 officers in quarantine so we see our numbers are going up again where COVID is concerned so I must say this donation came very timely in the sense that we will be able to better equip out officers to be able to confront the fight against COVID as well as to be discharge their duties on a daily basis without having to worry too much about contracting the virus because they will have the relevant protective equipment to ensure they can go home safely to their families and so where the PPE's are concerned, we are extremely grateful."
"In terms of the other equipment, the UTV's and the ATV's, those two vehicular resources will go a along way in our response to incidents across the country particularly in remote areas where we will have difficult using vehicles, these equipment will surely get us to those locations in a more quicker and expedient manner."
Hon. Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs and New Growth Industries
"We are very very appreciative of this donation, a lot of it as you know is needed, in a time of COVID our officers need to be fully protected like I mention earlier, every three minutes an officer encounters member of the public and they must ensure that they are protecting themselves as well as that member of the public they are interacting with so the PPE's is a very welcomed gift especially at this time with the Delta variant and the surges because of the variant."
The total value of the donation was $120,000 US dollars.
