And while the Minister and his delegation are exploring the feasibility of an Air Carrier hub in Belize, the Statistical Institute of Belize is reporting that the country's external trade numbers have significantly improved. On Wednesday, we showed you their breakdown of the gross domestic product and the inflation numbers. During that press conference, they also discussed the figures for imports and exports.
We start first with a breakdown of imports into the country over the last eight months, which statistician Ronald Orellano provided:
Ronald Orellano - Statistician II
"The minerals fuels and lubricants went up by 86.1%, or 134 million, increasing from 156.6 million dollars to 289.6 million, due to higher world market prices, combined with increased quantities of fuel being imported. Imports of machinery and transport equipment, such as aviation equipment, food processing machinery, and vehicles, went up by 113.2 million, from 244.4 million dollars to 357.6 million dollars."
"Imports of manufactured goods and other manufacturers together surged from 306 million dollars to 384.1 million. That's a combined 25.6% increase due to bigger purchases of cement clinkers, metal structures, and medical equipment."
"The chemical products category rose by 138.5 million dollars to 193 million, an increase due largely to fertilizers."
"Goods meant for the commercial free zones likewise went up from 192.5 million dollars to 242.6 million, with increased imports such as cigarettes, tennis shoes, and t-shirts."
"With boosted imports of grocery items such as margarine and coffee, the food and live animals category had an uptick from 159.7 million to 189.5 million dollars."
Here now is a snippet of his presentation on exports from Belize:
Ronald Orellano - Statistician II
"Total domestic exports from January to August for this year amounted to 329.4 million dollars, up 11.3% or 33.6 million dollars, when compared to exports of the same period last year."
"Earnings from animal feed more than doubled, growing from 15.3 million dollars to 37.3 million dollars due to increased quantities being exported at favorable prices."
"Exports of marine products saw an increase of 5.7 million dollars, going up from 27.5 million to 33.2 million, owing largely to favorable prices in exports of conch and lobster meat."
"Revenues from citrus products went up by 30 million to 32.6 million, due mainly to improved exports of orange oil at better prices."
