The other figures released today were for the consumer price index and the external trade ratio. As the Director General explained, the trade imbalance was higher than ever:
Jules Vasquez Reporting
Glen Avilez - Director General, SIB
"At the top you have 2 lines, the blue one and the red one. The blue one represents all imports, and the red one represents all imports excluding the Corozal Free Zone. You'll see that there is a huge difference between what we import, and what we export. In fact, it seems that we import almost 3 times what we export as a country. In 2013, we imported a total of 1.3 billion dollars' worth of goods from the rest of the world. This is an increase of 8%, or roughly 133 million dollars. I want to highlight 2 of the categories that combine for 106 million dollars of this 133 million dollars that I spoke to you about. Machinery and transport equipment, up by 51 million dollars in 2013. For the 10-year period between 2003 and 2013, imports were growing at an average annual rate of 5.3%. In 2013 that rate accelerated to 8%."
And while imports were at a record high - exports were down by 51 million dollars:
Glen Avilez
"The decrease in our export revenues were largely due to lower oil and citrus receipts. In fact, these 2 products combine for 90 million dollars less revenues."
Inflation and the consumer price index - was also surprisingly low.
Glen Avilez
"Between December 2012 and December 2013, the CPI increased by 1.6%. Simply saying that if an item - on average - cost $1 in December 2013, it would cost 1 dollar and 1 cents. It should that in 2013, the average prices of goods - and this is across the 250 items that we monitor. Prices went up by a mere 0.5% I'm sure that your reaction is, why is it so low? Something must be wrong. But, when we compare with other countries - and here, I have the US and Canada, for 2012, and 2013. The CPI for the US was 2.1% in 2012, and that changed to 1.5% in 2013. In 2012, the St. Kitts inflation was similar to what Belize experienced 1.4%, the same in Dominica. And very close to home, El Salvador had 1.7%."
If that doesn't jibe with your shopping experience-
Glen Avilez
"People will talk to you about their individual situations, and yes, a number of goods have been seeing an increase over the years, particularly food items. Food items are now 3.6% higher than they were last. But, if you would talk to persons, those same persons about items like clothing, which has remained, or for the most part, has been fallen. It is easy to criticize the SIB and say that our figures are wrong, but it is not unique to Belize that we have low inflation rates. Yes, individuals and even organizations will contradict what we have presented, but they go by the gut feels. We go by what really exists."
According to the S-I-B, Belize current population is 351 thousand, 300 persons.
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