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Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"This Budget will see absolutely no new taxes and no overall spending cuts."

Jules Vasquez reporting
And that's because of unmatched economic growth:

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"Our economy grew by 5.3% during 2012, well above the 1.9% recorded for 2011 and just about the best in the Anglophone Caribbean."

The projection for next year is that growth will continue at a more modest pace of 3% - but the growth in revenue from taxes will benefit public officers:

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"I say again with great pride that we do not propose to increase any taxes in this new budget. Instead, we sound the tocsin of improved administration and efficiency of collection. And we believe that Public Officers will answer the call. For they, and we, know that, in the face of declining petroleum revenues and grants, it on this that the salary increases depend; it is this that must carry the day."

"Even as we reject austerity we do not embrace profligacy. We therefore walk the fine line of, on the one hand, responding to the pressing social and citizen security needs at home; responding to any reasonable and affordable wage concerns of our public officers and teachers; responding to the need for investment in new physical infrastructure."

And while the public officers will benefit from that surplus- the rural poor will benefit from an expansion in the food pantry program:

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"We will expand our support to the indigent and the working poor through the Food Pantry Program, giving this basic nutritional and survival assistance to more citizens, including now in some rural areas."

And in a budget that was restrained in its optimism, this was the only other palliative that stood out:

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"And there is a sixty million dollar infrastructure package to be financed and implemented via the newly registered, wholly GOB-owned, private company called Belize Infrastructure Limited. This is the special-purpose vehicle that will create jobs, stimulate demand, purchase private sector material and supplies, and generally raise that tide that will float all Belizean boats."

And that major public sector funded spending is what you might call an outgrowth of the Barrow Economic Doctrine, which the Prime Minister laid bare today:

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"We have been forthright in embracing and promoting-indeed proselytizing-the role of the state in driving economic development; in stimulating demand; in stepping into the breach always, but especially when there is any slackening of private sector activity. It has been our practical and philosophical conviction that big government is a necessity for small countries. We will therefore continue to ramp up the public sector investment programme."

But public spending will be tightly reigned in:

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"Fiscal discipline must continue, and expenditure restraint-though not wholesale contraction- must remain at the front of our agenda as we manage our public finances into the medium term."

And that somber tone hung over the proceedings as PM Barrow made the case to creditors that his government, just back form renegotiating was contrite and conservative. And the Superbond played a large part in today's budget presentation: it received six mentions in three different parts of a speech that had no shortage of self-congratulation for taming the debt monster:

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"The superbond-that bane of our existence, that monster of our nightmare- has been tackled and tamed. Not vanquished, mind you, but put on a leash and confined to its lair."

"According to the international sovereign restructuring playbook, nobody gets debt relief even as they are growing their economy by over 5%. Nobody gets debt relief while attracting signature foreign direct investments such as the ASR $100m in the sugar industry. And nobody gets debt relief while steadfastly refusing to surrender fiscal and monetary sovereignty to any IMF Program."

"So let the haters choke on their bile. This singular triumph of the UDP shall forever stand in contrast to the kleptocracy of their record."

And Prime Minister Barrow kept to that very harsh partisan line, throughout a speech that was replete - unusually so - with references to the other side:

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"Of course, while we can now feel very good about Belize, it is not all rose coloured lenses or sunlit vistas. For one thing, there is still a superbond hangover. We have taken our alka seltzer and tomato juice. But though the "goma" has lessened it will never completely disappear."

"Those that have condemned us to this perpetual migraine say they are tired of hearing about it, but I endorse the words of the Minister of Housing: you will hear about it till you are dead because we have to continue paying it till we are all dead."

"In reflecting on their vermin-like behaviour, I am reminded of what Mirabeau said of Talleyrand in the days before the French Revolution, and I paraphrase: he would sell his soul for money, and he would be right, for he would be receiving gold in exchange for excrement. That, Mr Speaker, could well be the epitaph of those on the other side."

And in a speech that was heavier on bombast from the past than it was on moral lift for the future - Barrow ended by - as best he could, mustering a positive outlook:

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"The superbond has had its claws drawn. The asphyxia of austerity has been rejected. There is unprecedented economic growth. There is tangible increase in social protection. There is abundant liquidity in the banking system for private sector access to credit. There is security for our currency backstopped by impregnable reserves."

The budget speech lasted an hour and fifteen minutes -slightly shorter than Mr. Barrow's Presentations customarily are. It will be debated on the 21st. and 22nd of March.