Inflation Nears Five Percent, Confidence Sinks  

And it’s not only your electricity bill that might go up. In fact, your groceries, your bus fare, even a trip to the doctor: they all cost more now. New figures from the Statistical Institute of Belize show inflation climbed nearly five percent in September, with the cost of transportation, food, housing, utilities and healthcare all going up. Consumer confidence has fallen to its lowest level in more than two years. And producers say another round of price increases could be on the way. News Five’s Paul Lopez reports.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

Everything di go up, AGAIN! Well, that’s according to the Statistical Institute of Belize. Prices rose almost five percent in September compared with the same month last year. Transportation costs were ten-point seven percent higher, driven mainly by a three-dollar and seventy-five cents increase in the price of diesel. Commuters are also paying fifteen percent more for public transportation. Food prices rose four-point three percent, driven mainly by higher prices for meat and vegetables. Housing and utilities, including rent, electricity and water, rose four-point four percent. Health services rose six-point four percent. It is these very inflationary pressures that influenced Cabinet’s cost of living discussion on Tuesday.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“I am very excited about what we discussed. We discussed a number of issues in Cabinet and one of the things that we have been working very closely with the Financial Secretary and zeta from Ministry of Finance and I presented where we can find savings within the budget. And that savings we want to be able to use it to be able to address the cost of living adjustments or the different programs and steps we are going to take. I believe we can have a direct positive impact in the lives of our citizens. I don’t want to jump the gun right now. We are working on the finer details and once we work that out, we should be able to make an announcement.”

 

According to the SIB, consumer confidence fell nine-point six percent in September, to thirty-eight point four percent. That is the lowest level in almost two and a half years. This means people are less confident about the economy today and about what lies ahead. Producers in Spanish Lookout are warning that the price of goods could go up, and they link it to the financial troubles at Belize Electricity Limited.

 

Norman Dyck, Representative, Spanish Lookout Community

“In 2020, there were three big projects Spanish Lookout needed: UHT for milk production, Minsa Mill, and cooking oil refinery. So with the opening of the refinery today, we have all three companies working, but with all these new companies, the electricity consumption is up and we have – we had to buy more generators and solar. So with more generators, we use more crude oil, which we have not been able to get enough lately to produce the electricity. We hope we don’t need to switch to diesel, as this would drive up food prices. So this is a challenge that we’re currently having, that it seems like we can’t get enough crude, so this is something we’re working on right now to see if we can somehow get that going.”

 

Meanwhile, domestic exports increased by eleven and a half percent in September, largely attributed to sugar. Revenue from sugar rose by a substantial seventeen million dollars. Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.

 

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.

 

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