Belize’s Real GDP Growth Rates Outperforms Global Growth Rate

We begin our newscast this evening with welcome news from the financial sector. The Central Bank of Belize held a press conference earlier today to update the public on its operations and the nation’s economic standing. Governor Kareem Michael kicked things off by highlighting a remarkable rise in G.D.P. per person from 2020 to 2023. This figure represents the country’s economic output per person. Back in 2020, the G.D.P. per person was ten thousand, five hundred dollars. Fast forward three years, and it has jumped by five thousand, five hundred dollars. This means that each person is contributing significantly more to the G.D.P. now than they were three years ago. This impressive growth is reflected in Belize’s G.D.P. growth rate, which the Central Bank says is the highest in Latin America and the Caribbean, and even surpasses the global growth rate.

 

Kareem Michael, Governor, Central Bank

“Today we can confidently say that since the onset of the pandemic and these conditional external shocks, our economy has fully recovered. Indeed, real GDP for a person in 2023 was above what would have been implied by a continuation of pre-pandemic levels. If we didn’t have the shock, the dotted line here shows that real GDP per capita would have been somewhere around thirteen thousand five hundred per citizen per person within the population. As it is, we are some two thousand dollars above that at fifteen thousand, five hundred. On an annual basis, the Central Bank projects that the economy will grow to about seven percent in 2024. This annual growth outpaced the IMF’s projected 2024 growth rates for several Central American and Caribbean countries and is well above the average of two point one percent expected overall.”