Economist Says Government Needs to Reduce Food Prices 

But the teachers’ plight is not just about salaries. Today, economist Doctor Phillip Castillo weighed in, pointing to inflation as a critical factor. He says the government must also focus on reducing the cost of living, especially food prices, which continue to strain household budgets across the country.

 

Dr. Phillip Castillo, Economist

“You want to look at inflation, meaning that I’m very familiar with persons in the B.N.T.U. and I’m very familiar with the level of expertise that they bring to their analysis. I’m certain that they would’ve crunched the numbers. They’ve looked at inflation over the past years. The issue with Belize’s inflation numbers, whereas the overall number may be very low, for example, I think we are at 1.4%, but the food component of that is extremely high. I think the food component is around 15 point something percent. So what’s happening in Belize then is that food expenditures have been substantially going up far more than the average level of prices on goods and services. And it’s based on that the unions are making their demands that food inflation has been going up. So what government may want to do, if there’s something that government can do to reduce food prices or to keep food prices from not rising as fast as just about everything else, then that could mitigate some of the wage demands that teachers are making.”