In other news, today the Statistical Institute of Belize today released the figures for the fourth quarter of 2023. One of the main areas of focus was the gross domestic product, which grew when compared to the fourth quarter of 2022. And that growth is mainly due to the tertiary sector, which refers to services provided.
Statistician Christopher Hulse explained more.
Christopher Hulse, Statistician II, Economic Statistics Department
"Based on the sum of the four quarters of the year we see that Goods and Services for 2023 were valued at an estimated 5.27 billion dollars, this is an increase of 234.3 million dollars or 4.7%. The primary drivers for growth were in the tertiary sector, as primary sector was down by 6.3%, secondary sector was down by 1.6% then the tertiary sector was up by 9.6%. So this is just a snapshot of what we expect to be the annual when we publish that later in the year."
"October to December of 2023, we see that goods and services produced totaled 1.35 billion dollars. This is an increase of 41.44 million dollars of 3.2% when we compared it to that same time period for 2022. Again the primary drivers for economic growth were in the tertiary sector as we saw the primary sector decrease by 3.1%, the secondary sector decreased by 5.3% and the tertiary sector up by 8.8%."
And the reason the tertiary sector saw that increase was due mainly to the boom in tourism numbers. The primary sector as well as the secondary sector saw decreases, due to reduced output in the agriculture and mining industries.
Christopher Hulse, Statistician II, Economic Statistics Department
"We can see that almost 2/3 of the GDP share is in the tertiary sector so out of that 1.35 billion, this is saying that approximately 867.4 million dollars of that 1.35 billion is found in the tertiary sector then we say that 12% for the secondary sector, the primary sector 11.7% so round up to 12% and then we have have taxes at 13% so altogether we have the 1.35 billion dollars."
"Now we look at each sector in detail, starting with the primary sector. In quarter four of 2022, we had 163.4 million dollars, we are now at 158.4 million dollars. This is a decrease of 5 million or 3.1% but I must make note that for 2023, most of the year, we had drought like conditions, mainly in the northern and western parts of the country which impacted agriculture and in turn that will impact the secondary sector. So within the primary sector, we see agriculture, forestry and fishing went down by 0.8% and mining went down by 28.3%."
"The tertiary sector went from 797.1 million dollars in quarter 4 of 2022 to 867.4 million dollars for quarter four of 2023. This is an increase of 70.3 million dollars or 8.8%, mainly driven by an increase of the hotels and restaurants industry, transportation, we see arts, entertainment and recreation, the industries that have a tie to the increase in tourism movement."
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