Export Decline Fuels Belize’s Trade Deficit

Belize is buying far more from the world than it is selling, widening an already troubling trade gap. From January through August, the country imported two-point-two billion dollars in goods, but exported just two hundred and seventy-two million dollars’ worth. That means Belize spent roughly eight dollars on imports for every dollar earned from exports. Export revenues fell by fourteen percent, as shipments to the United Kingdom and CARICOM declined, despite stronger sales to the United States and the European Union. And as the Statistical Institute of Belize works to present a fuller picture of the country’s trade activity, it is now counting cattle exports from both the formal and informal markets.

 

Tiffany Vasquez, Statistician 2, SIB

“The picture is clear, domestic exports have been declining for years. If we focus just on recent years, say within the past five years, one can say that there has been somewhat of a leveling in 2023 and 2024. But in general, after a brief rebound in 2022, we have resumed the path of decline. Overall, though this is an accurate picture, one can say domestic exports have been declining, there is still a glaring deficiency in this narrative, and that is we have not been capturing informal exports as part of our merchandise trade. Fortunately, international recommendations regarding merchandise trade statistics have changed, such that informal trade now forms part of our official trade statistics.”

 

Cattle exports recorded forty-nine point two million dollars in the first eight months of the year, across both the formal and informal markets.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

Watch the full newscast here: