The government has gotten another glowing report form the IMG after its Article Four consultation in Belize from February second to the 14th.
The report notes that "Economic activity has rebounded strongly from the COVID-19 pandemic, while inflation has risen….real GDP rebounded by 15.2 percent in 2021 and 11.6 percent in the first three quarters of 2022, driven by retail and wholesale trade, tourism, and business process outsourcing."
Meanwhile, inflation rose to 6.3 percent in 2022. The IMF forecasts that economic activity and inflation are projected to moderate going forward with GDP growth tapering off at 3 percent in 2023.
The IMF also praises the government for slicing the public debt. First off though - the rebasing of the debt brought it down from 133 percent of the old GDP to 101 percent of the new GDP.
And then that 101% fell further to 64.1 percent of GDP in 2022 with eh combination of the Blue Bond, a deep discount on the Petrocaribe debt, along with cost containment and sustained strong GDP growth.
Today at another event, the CEO in the Ministry of Economic Development beamed about the favorable report:
Osmond Martinez, CEO, Ministry of Economic Development
"It has become an excellent meeting, with the unprecedented macro economic indicators, we have seen very positive response form IMF."
"They're impressed because Belize's homegrown economic plan is performing well, their most impressive point is that our debt to GDP went from 133% in 2020 to 63% which is over 60 points which up to now, it is, for many economies, and people who wants to argue, how have we managed to bring down debt to GDP but it's a combination of components, one is renegotiation of some of the, or the restructuring of the sovereign debts, and two is the growth of GDP and, for example, what we are doing here today contributes to GDP growth because there is an increase in economic activity and enables an environment to continue with economic growth in Belize so IMF is very happy with Belize right now."
Reporter:
"The blue bond is one of the aspects that helped with that decrease, right?"
Osmond Martinez, CEO, Ministry of Economic Development
"Of course, the blue bond had an impact of 12% directly onto GDP but it still having, you know when there is an explosion somewhere, you don't know the damage it creates, you know it takes time to know, the blue bond transaction has created a positive damage to Belize whereby Belize has something to offer whereby now international agents, they want to know about the blue bond and so the blue bond should be one of the main marketing tools for Belize, not only for renegotiations of any sovereign debt but also to let the whole world know, hey, Belize has something to offer."
