And finally tonight, the Caribbean Development Bank held their annual news press conference this morning. In the more than two-hour long conference, the CDB gave presentations on subjects such as economic growth and sustainable development goals within the region. According to CDB vice president, Isaac Solomon, a regional growth rate of 5.7% is forecasted for 2023 - thanks mostly to the revival of tourism and investment in the energy sector.
And for Belize, our tourism industry is rebounding faster compared to others within the region. And our third quarter economic growth of 12.3% added significantly to the overall growth of the region.
The CDB Director of Economics, Ian Durant, spoke more about Belize's growth compared to the rest of the region.
Ian Durant, CDB Director of Economics
"In 2022 Belize is estimated to have grown by 8.5%. How does that compare with the region? the average for the region was 10.3% for 2022. If we exclude Guyana the average was 4.9%. If we compare Belize with other service exporters, the service exporter average was 4.6%. So that's the comparison. I think that the performance suggest that Belize is recovering or at least the tourism industry is recovering faster than the rest of the region. So that has been the experience with Belize compared with the rest of the region."
