And going back to last week's presentation of the latest economic figures by the Statistical Institute of Belize - they noted that food prices in the month of February went up but - art that time fuel prices were lower than 2025 - so, overall, inflation was less than 1%.
Jaime Crespo, Statistician - SIB
"The food and nonalcoholic beverage category, with prices increasing by 1.2%. This was mainly due to the rise in several food products such as meats, cereal products and sugar, along with nonalcoholic beverages such as coffee, purified water, and soft drinks. The restaurant and accommodation services category surprises increasing by 2.3%. This was mainly due to higher costs for food and beverage serving services, which went up by 1.8%. Accommodation services also went up by 9.5%. The transport category decreased by 3.6%, helping to offset increases observed during this period. The price. The average price for fuel from January to February 2026 was lower than the same period in 2025, which regular fuel was down by 8% per gallon, premium by 7.2% and diesel by 2.9%."
Of course since then fuel prices have shot up - so we'll see what the next set of figures look like. But in February Orange Walk showed the lowest rate of inflation:
Jaime Crespo, Statistician - SIB
"We can observe that Punta Gorda town experienced the highest year to date inflation rate of 2.4%. Consumers in this municipality experienced higher prices for food and nonalcoholic beverages, restaurants and accommodation services, and clothing and footwear. On the other hand, Orange Walk Town experienced the lowest year to date inflation rate at -0.9%. Consumers in this municipality experienced modest increases for items such as food, nonalcoholic beverages, health and restaurants, and cafe services."
And regionally, how does Belize fare against neighboring countries for inflation? Here's a snapshot:
Jaime Crespo, Statistician - SIB
"We can observe that Costa Rica recorded the lowest year to date inflation rate at -2.6%, while Dominican Republic recorded the highest inflation rate at 4.8%. Comparing Belize with the selected countries, Belize recorded a low year to date inflation rate of 0.4%, indicating relatively stable prices, as it is lower than most of the other countries."
