After we spoke to the DPM, we also got a chance to get the BNTU's take on the meeting. According to President, Elena Smith, the meeting was cordial, respectful and open. She also said that while they put their proposals to GOB, she also believes that more can be done within the government to cut costs as well.
Hon. Elena Smith - President, BNTU "Ministers presented to us the situation with the country, what is the economic situation and what is it that the government needs to achieve in terms of the deficit that we have."
Reporter "The BNTU made a proposal in terms the way forward?"
Hon. Elena Smith "Yes, we shared with them as we've normally done of these cost saving measures, we also shared with them some of the concerns of our members in terms of what would be the plan in being able to bridge that deficit gap. We did not have a discussion in terms of whether there's going to be a salary cut definitively but we discussed what are the areas and what are the things that need to be done to ensure that we can bridge that gap. We will be having some recommendation coming from the government that they can provide to us so that we can see what has been done thus far, what those will yield in terms of the proposed measures and then what will be left for us to be able to consider in terms of how we will bridge that remaining balance and then when that time comes, we are going to be discussing what other measures we will put in place. There are things that we believe that as a government internally, they can do to assist in that area, we know that a lot of people have not been employed and so not contributing but there are measures they can take internally and externally that they can take to be able to do that."
GOB will also be meeting with NTUCB, and the Association of the Public Service Senior Managers, APSSM.
A position paper put out by the government this evening called "Analysis of the State of the Nation's Economy" notes the following: that the Average income per person has fallen steadily since 2008, from $7,412 in 2008 to $7,040 by 2019, and then plummeting to $5,843 in 2020 - which is the lowest since 1992.
It notes also that unemployment almost tripled in 2020, from 10.4% to almost 30%, noting that Belize's unemployment rate is more than triple the average unemployment rate throughout the Caribbean and more than quadruple that of Central America. Also in 2020, Government revenues fell by almost 30%, and 36 cents out of every dollar spent on government expenditures is being borrowed to make payments, and 83 cents out of every dollar of government revenues is being spent on wages, salaries and pensions.
