Which Administration Added the Most to Belize’s Debt?

A debate over a USD $23 million loan turned into a full-throated exchange in the House of Representatives on Thursday, with Prime Minister John Briceño going on the offensive against the opposition leader Tracy Panton. 

The opposition had challenged the Briceño administration’s borrowing practices, accusing the government of driving the country deeper into debt. But the Prime Minister was having none of it, pointing to numbers he said told a very different story.

“By the time they came to 2020, you know what was the GDP? The GDP went from PUP [in] 2008, [at] $11,332 to UDP GDP in 2020 at $10,418. They regressed by 8% in 13 years, spending over $13 billion,” Briceño said. “You would have expected a high school kid could do better than that.”

He dismissed the opposition’s attempt to blame the COVID-19 pandemic for the economic decline, sarcastically calling out what he described as thirteen years of excuses. “Yes, we had COVID under the UDP. That is why nothing happened. Thirteen years of COVID,” he said.

Belize’s debt-to-GDP ratio currently stands at 68%, down from 120% in 2020.

Ultimately, the US$23 million loan motion was approved in the House of Representatives. The funds will be directed toward the construction and rehabilitation of preschools across Belize, which is a part of the wider Briceño administration’s push to increase early childhood education and jobs for women.