Belize’s GDP Soars With SIB’s Updated Methodology

Prime Minister John Briceño

Prime Minister Briceño also spoke about the Statistical Institute of Belize’s recently updated methodology to estimate the country’s G.D.P. As a result of a newly applied system, Belize’s G.D.P. for the first quarter of 2022 grew by sixty-one million dollars, surpassing pre-pandemic production levels in the first quarter of 2019. It was determined that the previous method underestimated the output of several industries, like the B.P.O. Industry. Prime Minister Briceño was asked today if his administration finds the newly applied method encouraging, because it presents an overall fiscal image that is more favorable to greater borrowing. Here is how he responded.

Prime Minister John Briceño

“That’s not true, that is not true. That is definitely not the reason we are doing that. It is an exercise that we have been doing for some time. The old model was not capturing all of the activity within the economy and it is important for us to be able to measure the actual economic activity that is taking place in the country. That is what the rebasing has done in simple terms. Yes, because it shows that the economy is bigger our debt to GDP has gone down. But, that does not mean that we are going to go out there and just continue to borrow widely. We have to borrow smartly. We have to borrow to invest in the right places, like agriculture, housing, education, health and some form of infrastructure. Those are where we need to borrow so that we can invest to develop this country so that we can be more competitive in the region.”