"" that's the name of the budget that the Prime Minister presented today. And indeed, it finds his administration refreshed. Sure it may be broke, and its credit destroyed, the debt bomb has been dismantled - and with his house tattered but in order, the Prime Minister presented a budget that was modestly muscular. Jules Vasquez tries now for the fastest recap ever.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
Okay as quickly as possible, here's the budget:
- Real GDP grew by 4%,
- Unemployment fell from 11% to 9.4%,and inflation rose by 4%
- Exports increased by 36.6% owing mostly to petroleum which also spiked GDP growth.
- The GST over performed by $20 million,
- The debt was restructured and DFC had 4,900 bad loans.
- GDP will continue to grow in the new year,
The deficit will dip to less than 1% and did we mention, the debt was restructured? Rt. Hon. Said Musa, Prime Minister
"The government of Belize has successfully restructured the commercial debt of Belize. In total, 98.1% of the total commercial debt has been restructured. Madam Speaker this success rate is virtually unprecedented in the history of sovereign debt restructuring. This government has therefore pledged to our creditors and to the Belizean people that it will continue to manage its finances in a responsible manner."
"A responsible manner," you heard right the government that once used its budget to boast of record nearly double digit growth rates, the turbo charged growth economics, hundreds of jobs, thousands of homes and major project spending appeared this morning like born again fiscal disciplinarians. The boasts were about sharp curtailing in the overall deficit and debt restructuring.
Rt. Hon. Said Musa, Prime Minister
"It is a budget that ensures our country continues to grow in a steady sustainable way, a budget that still ends the year with a much reduced deficit and another primary surplus."
Years ago, in the days of growth economics, those boasts would have been subjects of shame, but this year, modesty, prudent management those are the buzz words.
Rt. Hon. Said Musa, Prime Minister
"This year the government of Belize continued on its program to achieve new medium term stability and sustainability in its fiscal and debt operations. Over the past several years, this program has resulted in a sharp decline in the overall deficit from over 8% of GDP to 3.3% of GDP last year."
Admitting that the GDP was actually over 8% is quite a thing - considering that it's this same minister of finance who said it was half that. These subjects once sure signs of failure, widely and flatly denied are now benchmarks of accomplishment, where the Prime Minister actually claims progress against his government's own errors, misrepresentations and obfuscations. The Leader of the Opposition says he is not impressed:
Hon. Dean Barrow, Opposition Leader
"They seem completely to miss the fact that they're conceding that things were as bad as they were when they used to try and cover up their failures and that indeed they wrecked the economy. It is a hell of a thing where you say, 'well give me some points because I wrecked the economy but I wrecked it in order to try and save it now.' And of course they are not really saving it because the improvements come at the cost of the bone cutting that has been done with respect to expenditure."
But like the name of the budget says, this year it's about facing, fixing and moving forward, and the Prime Minister wasn't about to hang up on past errors, he's moving on. This is of course an election year budget, possibly the last this Prime Minister will read in this term. And while austere times meant that he couldn't fill it with the bounty of sweets such an occasion calls for, he did try.
Rt. Hon. Said Musa,
"Government will provide free basic primary school textbooks in mathematics, science, English, and social studies to all needy children....an allocation of four million dollars to allow the expansion of NHI to the rest of the country...to reduce mortgage payments on all social housing. That is, low income houses at an affordable rate not exceeding two hundred dollars per month.
Government is presently working on a project at mile 12 on the northern road to provide one thousand more housing lots. Removal of the ten dollar service charge on the electricity bills by BEL will be effected by the end of the first quarter of this fiscal year. The construction of streets and drains on the south side of Belize City will soon begin in a major way.
A new international bridge at the Belize-Mexico Border, the paving of the Placencia Road, a major upgrading of the road from Blue Creek to Orange Walk Town, the paving of the road from San Estevan to Progresso Village and the upgrading the road to Sartenja. The upgrading of the Old Northern Highway, the rebuilding of the Crooked Tree Causeway, completion of the paving of the Southern Highway."
A bounty of plums small but sweet, but again, the offering did not impress the Opposition Leader.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
"The sorts of reliefs and exemptions that would have hit directly home in people's pockets are absent and this being clearly the election year budget, one had every reason to expect that those plums would have been offered. It just shows the message of the desperate straits, economically, in which the government finds itself. The absence of those sorts of promises is I think made more dramatic when you consider that he conceded that there is a rise in the consumer price index, I believe he said of 4.5%. That is a staggering jump in inflation rate so it means, its confirmation, of what we all know that people are suffering terribly in terms of the cost of living."
And while Barrow complains about the cost of living, the Prime Minister says this is still a good country and his budget is achievable.
Rt. Hon. Said Musa,
"Some people may say, 'sorry that's too ambitious, sorry that is rhetoric, sorry it can't be done.' I say Belize is not a sorry country, we are not a sorry people. It can be done if you have the will, the vision, the courage and the determination to do it. Together we can, after all we are living in a good country."
The budget will be debated in two weeks time, starting on Thursday March 14th.
