Also, in the PM's late evening statement came the pronouncement about the quite well-known fact that that the country's credit is maxed out and that as a nation we aren't making enough to pay our Bills.
But while the PM announced these facts like they're new information he has to have know that these massive debts have been building for months since the onset of COVID. Briceno said it's unsustainable.
Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister of Belize "While in opposition, we had railed against the mismanagement and corruption by the past UDP government that you rightly and soundly rejected at the polls. The magnitude of mismanagement was verified at our briefing by the technocrats from the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Belize. These technocrats jointly expressed that the Government has been functioning with unsustainable fiscal and debt positions. The presentation to Cabinet by the technocrats revealed that Central Government's revenues have fallen by over $166.8 million or by 24.9 percent. This is far worse than we had anticipated. Government has been borrowing to meet the monthly wage and pensions bill and other current expenses to the tune of around $30 million per month. As a result, Central Government's debt has jumped from 97.7 percent of GDP to 132.9 percent of GDP. In simple terms, the UDP Government maxed out the credit card. We do not earn enough to pay our bills. We are more than double the internationally acceptable debt to GDP threshold and the second highest in the Caribbean. This is unsustainable."
