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Western Hemisphere > Belize

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Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Belize: 2024 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; and Staff Report
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
The 2024 Article IV Consultation with Belize highlights that real gross domestic product growth and inflation moderated in 2023. Belize’s key policy priorities include raising the primary balance with revenue mobilization and expenditure rationalization to lower public debt to a level that provides sufficient buffers, increasing expenditure in priority areas, adopting growth enhancing structural reforms, and building resilience to climate change and related disasters. These policies would boost growth and make it more inclusive. Boosting medium-term growth requires increasing female labor force participation, enhancing access to affordable credit for small and medium size enterprises, reducing crime, improving the business climate, and adopting a disaster resilience strategy that strengthens structural, financial, and post-disaster resilience and is based on a multi-year macro-fiscal framework. Keeping vulnerable financial institutions under enhanced supervision and requesting recapitalization when needed is important to maintain financial stability. Strengthening the currency peg requires increasing international reserves by reducing public debt, implementing structural reforms and limiting government financing by the Central Bank.
Keywords:
central bank financing; money market rate; financing of the government; expenditure measure; central bank of Belize; Fiscal stance; Anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT); Public sector; Global; Caribbean
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Belize: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
This Selected Issue paper documents the recent episode of food inflation and food insecurity in Belize. The paper also overviews what policies were announced in Belize and the Caribbean during the recent cost-of-living crisis; and discusses the policies Belize could implement to protect its most vulnerable households from the threat of food insecurity going forward. It discusses the appropriate policies to protect vulnerable households from food price inflation going forward based on economic theory and best practices and estimates how much it would cost the government of Belize to protect the vulnerable population against a rise in food prices like the one in 2022. The authorities should evaluate the impact of the recent policy that regulates mark-ups on essential goods by wholesale and retail operators when they have sufficient data. The limits on the mark-up for 32 essential goods were introduced to limit the increase in food prices and avoid monopolistic practices.
Keywords:
food inflation; staff ream; debt target; cost of living crisis; B. food inflation; food inflation in Belize; price signals work; Food prices; Food security; Inflation; Fiscal stance; Caribbean; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Belize: 2023 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Belize
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
This 2023 Article IV Consultation discusses that economic activity has rebounded strongly from the pandemic in Belize. After growing by 15 percent in 2021 and 12 percent in 2022, real GDP is projected to grow by 2.4 percent in 2023 and 2.0 percent over the medium term as spare capacity is exhausted. The key policy priorities include reducing public debt to a level that provides sufficient buffers, increasing expenditure in priority areas, implementing growth enhancing structural reforms, and building resilience to climate change. These policies would boost growth and make it more inclusive. Boosting potential growth requires enhancing access to domestic credit, ensuring predictable access to foreign exchange to attract foreign direct investment, reducing crime, and adopting a disaster resilience strategy that strengthens structural, financial, and post-disaster resilience and is based on a multi-year macro-fiscal framework. Strengthening the sustainability of the currency peg requires implementing additional fiscal consolidation and growth-enhancing structural reforms, as well as limiting government financing by the Central Bank.
Keywords:
authorities of Belize; currency peg; authorities project growth; terrorism financing risk; reform agenda; Fiscal stance; Public sector; Global; Caribbean
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Belize: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
This Selected Issues paper studies inflation dynamics in Belize with the goal of quantifying the role of external and domestic factors in the recent inflationary episode and projecting inflation going forward. The paper applies a Principal Component Analysis to inflation data of several countries and finds that global factors have contributed substantially to both the historical variation and the recent surge in Belize’s inflation. Global factors explain most of the recent surge in inflation in Belize and are projected to reduce inflation going forward. An estimated Phillips curve also finds that external factors, proxied by food and fuel prices and US inflation, have been a key driver in the surge in Belize’s inflation during the last two years. The estimation results show that external factors have significant effects on Belize’s inflation.
Keywords:
PPPO deficit; IMF's transparency policy; inflation projection; inflation decomposition; staff team of the International Monetary Fund; Inflation; Aging; Retirement; Pensions; Food prices; Global; Caribbean
Cover Finance & Development
Finance & Development, March 2022
International Monetary Fund. Communications Department
Finance and Development, March 2022
Keywords:
world inequality report; public finance management systems; debt-ratio target; government funding; debt-service cost; emerging market debt ratio range; management system function; Income inequality; Value-added tax; Currencies; Global; Africa; Caribbean; Asia and Pacific; South Asia
Cover IMF Working Papers
Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals in Small Developing States with Climate Vulnerabilities: Cost and Financing
Johanna Tiedemann
,
Veronica Piatkov
,
Dinar Prihardini
,
Juan Carlos Benitez
, and
Ms. Aleksandra Zdzienicka
Small Developing States (SDS) face substantial challenges in achieving sustainable development. Many of these challenges relate to the small size and limited diversification of their economies. SDS are also among the most vulnerable countries to the impact of climate change and natural disasters. Meeting SDS sustainable development goals goes hand-in-hand with building their climate resilience. But the additional costs to meet development and resilience objectives are substantial and difficult to finance. This work adapts the IMF SDG Costing methodology to capture the unique characteristics and challenges of climate-vulnerable SDS. It also zooms into financing options, estimating domestic tax potential and discussing the possibility of accessing ‘climate funds.’
Keywords:
Sustainable Development; Climate Resilience; Small Developing States.; WP; development goal; face difficulty; Growth-Climate Nexus; income group; Small Developing States; borrowing space; financial support; concentrate effort; face exposure; sectoral plan; private sector investment; Infrastructure; Income; Climate change; Global; Caribbean; East Africa; Middle East; North Africa
Cover IMF Working Papers
Is the Whole Greater than the Sum of its Parts? Strengthening Caribbean Regional Integration
Abdullah Al-Hassan
,
Mary E. Burfisher
,
Mr. Julian T Chow
,
Ding Ding
,
Fabio Di Vittorio
,
Dmitriy Kovtun
,
Arnold McIntyre
,
Ms. Inci Ötker
,
Marika Santoro
,
Lulu Shui
, and
Karim Youssef
Deeper economic integration within the Caribbean has been a regional policy priority since the establishment of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the decision to create the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME). Implementation of integration initiatives has, however, been slow, despite the stated commitment of political leaders. The “implementation deficit” has led to skepticism about completing the CSME and controversy regarding its benefits. This paper analyzes how Caribbean integration has evolved, discusses the obstacles to progress, and explores the potential benefits from greater integration. It argues that further economic integration through liberalization of trade and labor mobility can generate significant macroeconomic benefits, but slow progress in completing the institutional arrangements has hindered implementation of the essential components of the CSME and progress in economic integration. Advancing institutional integration through harmonization and rationalization of key institutions and processes can reduce the fixed costs of institutions, providing the needed scale and boost to regional integration. Greater cooperation in several functional policy areas where the region is facing common challenges can also provide low-hanging fruit, creating momentum toward full integration as the Community continues to address the obstacles to full economic integration.
Keywords:
WP; sovereign state; common market; ECCU authorities; labor market; CARICOM state; OECS authorities; factor market; average revenue; CARICOM economy; banking sector; CARICOM trade; trade cost; national budget; CARICOM member; Tax incentives; Regional integration; Caribbean; Global; Europe; exercise authority; Economic integration; CARICOM; CSME; Cooperation
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Belize: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
This Selected Issues paper provides an overview of Belize’s tourism sector and main achievements and discusses the country’s comparative advantages and bottlenecks in tourism. It also analyzes the impact of structural and institutional reforms on tourist arrivals. The outturns in tourism have significantly exceeded targets set in the authorities’ National Sustainable Tourism Masterplan (NSTMP). The implementation of the NSTMP reforms has supported the tourism sector’s expansion. In order to guide the development of the tourism sector, the NSTMP 2011 proposes reforms and targets to propel Belize into an internationally recognized tourist destination by 2030. The emergence of the shared economy business model has also brought new challenges, in addition to opportunities. The benefits of the peer-to-peer accommodation available to customers on digital platforms include the expansion of tourism product, service, and sector offerings; improved access to market; and opportunities for income generation. It is imperative that reforms in the near term should focus on addressing the impact of recurring natural hazards, infrastructure bottlenecks, fortifying the institutional and governance framework, reducing crime, and mitigating concerns relating to the shared economy.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; Belize; firm; tourism sector; loss-making firm; cruise tourism expenditure; EPZ company; company need; tourism indicators performance; Corporate income tax; Tourism; Income and capital gains taxes; Income tax systems; Consumption taxes; Caribbean; Global; Central America
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Belize: 2019 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Belize
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
This 2019 Article IV Consultation with Belize focused on structural reforms to raise growth and social inclusion; strengthening resilience to natural disasters; balanced medium-term fiscal consolidation; tax reform; and strengthening financial oversight and anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism actions. Public debt remains above 90 percent of gross domestic product, the current account deficit is projected to remain large over the medium term, and international reserves are just below three months of imports of goods and services. The pace of structural reform has been slow. Downside risks, including from slower US growth, natural disasters, crime, and renewed pressures on correspondent banking relationships could weaken growth and financial stability. Belize is adapting its tax regime in response to concerns from multilateral institutions regarding potentially harmful features. Sustaining Belize’s recent economic expansion, spurring private investment, and facilitating structural diversification hinges on strengthening the business environment.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; authority; policy; policy priority; Belize; resilience building; tax framework; liability positions vis-à-vis nonresident; exchange regime; government's Fiscal Strategy; Natural disasters; Tourism; Fiscal stance; Public sector; Caribbean
Cover IMF Working Papers
Tourism In Belize: Ensuring Sustained Growth
Mr. Julian T Chow
Belize’s tourism sector has witnessed impressive growth in recent years with overnight tourist arrivals registering double digit annual growth rates since 2016. To guide the development of the tourism sector from 2012 to 2030, the government endorsed a National Sustainable Tourism Master Plan in 2011, setting various initiatives and targets for the immediate and medium terms. Using a panel regression analysis on twelve Caribbean countries, this paper finds that accelerating structural reforms, fortifying governance frameworks, reducing crime, and mitigating the impact of natural disasters will help sustain tourism growth in Belize and contribute to economic well-being. This is in addition to tackling infrastructure bottlenecks and mitigating concerns relating to the “shared economy”.
Keywords:
WP; tourism sector; sub; Belize; cruise tourism expenditure; tourism indicators performance; tourism competitiveness; tourism destination; tourism Arrivals; tourism value chain; Tourism; Natural disasters; Infrastructure; Caribbean; Central America