Cental Bank Says Economy Has Proven Itself Resilient Post-Pandemic

At a conference today in Belize City, Governor of the Central Bank of Belize Kareem Michael highlighted Belize’s strong economic recovery post-pandemic. “The Belizean economy has proven itself to be resilient. We have weathered the covid pandemic, the oil price shock coming out of the Russia-Ukraine war, and the weather shocks from Hurricane Lisa in 2022, and other adverse climate-related events. Today we can confidently say that since the onset of the pandemic and these additional external shocks, our economy has fully recovered.”

Michael noted that real GDP per person in 2023 surpassed pre-pandemic levels, reaching higher than what it would have been without these disruptions. He pointed out that growth is now more widespread across sectors, contrasting with previous years affected by challenges like weather and high fertiliser costs.

The Central Bank of Belize projects the economy to grow by about 7% in 2024, outperforming growth expectations for other Central American and Caribbean nations and exceeding the global average of 2.1%. “In Belize’s case, the Central Bank of Belize expects that growth will be around 4.1%, again exceeding the global growth and the Latin American Caribbean region growth, and this should be above what the IMF says is our long growth potential output, which is again 2.5%,” Michael stated.