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The budget will be presented on February 27; that’s 16 days away. And so today, the Ministry of Finance held its National Budget Consultation, a one day symposium under the theme “Let All Ideas Contend.” It’s the culmination of the budget consultation process which started in November and today a very board cross section of representatives and leaders of every sphere of structured business and administrative activity in Belize, crowded into just about every available conference room at the Radisson to consult.

The inclusive process is in its second year – and is held up as a model of transparency. But translucent is a better word when it comes to describing government finances; where everybody knows that GOB is broke, but even more so than usual because it got just over 30 million dollars of revenue from the oil industry when it was expecting over 70. That’s put a hurting on the bottom line – leaving a financing gap of $60 million for the upcoming deficit, and today as he opened the symposium, the Prime Minister outlined the prospects for financing that deficit.

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
“This year will be much much tougher to deal with. How we are going to close a financing gap of around $60 million is something that I have yet not quite figured out but I am sure that by the time we make the budget presentation at the end of this month, the 27th is it, I will have the answers. It is not to suggest that things are so bleak that there is any room for any kind of counsel of display; not at all. I am confident that by the time of the budget presentation, with a little bit of mixing and matching I will be able to tell you and the Belizean people exactly how we are going to close that financing gap.

We are talking to various partners, we are looking at various strategies. As I said there is going to be a mix of foreign assistance and perhaps some local borrowing, some domestic borrowing from the Central Bank but we will get it right by the time of the presentation of the budget.”

Jules Vasquez,
Where do the talks stand with the Taiwanese?

Hon. Dean Barrow,
“They have already in principle agreed to a four year hundred million dollar package but we are certainly seeking to revisit that with them.”

Dr. Carla Barnett,
“We are not the only country that is grappling with larger gaps and underperforming revenue streams and greater demands on expenditure because of natural disasters. So for me it is not whether disappointed or not, it is how we can manage the process and respond appropriately.”

Jules Vasquez,
We have 16 days to go before the budget is presented, are we kind of scrambling to cover that massive financing gap?

Dr. Carla Barnett,
“Not really. This is the process we go through. We need to finance it and you know how to finance a gap, you either raise revenue or grants or you cut expenditure and that is the decision process that will have to take place over the next 16 days.”

Jules Vasquez,
Or you go beg.

Dr. Carla Barnett,
“Well yeah but at this stage if you done beg already and it is not in the bag, you can’t really count it. It comes later on and so we need to at this stage be quite comfortable with the budget that we put forward. We can’t put forward a budget on unreasonable expectations.”

And while there are no solutions immediately at hand, today’s all day session was to produce some realistic proposals. Indeed some of the country’s best minds were in attendance, from Unions, to Social Groups, to private industry, to the business sector, to municipal and village leaders....divided into three major groups who all developed recommendations. Those will be hammered into concrete recommendations and presented to Cabinet on Friday for its review of the draft budget. Dr. Barnett explained the importance of today’s session.

Dr. Carla Barnett,
“I think it is a good cross section that has come together and I am very pleased because everybody wants to participate. For me that is a measure of people feeling including. It is the inclusiveness of the process and they feel included not only because they have a chance to speak but at the end of the day the recommendations are taken into account and to the extent that they can be implemented they are. To the extent that they can’t, at least people understand why not.”

And while all that budget talk turns on technocrats, most regular folks just want to know about their personal budget, and more urgently, when the cost of living will go down. The Inflation rate for 2008 was estimated at 8% spiking to a consumer-crippling high of 17.9% in food, and beverages. Today the Prime Minister said that locally grown staples should go down soon, but even he wants to know what’s up with the high price of imported food products.

Adele Ramos, Amandala
“Your government came to power a year ago, a little bit over a year ago. One of your major manifesto promises was dealing with this cost of living issue. People are still crying about food prices. When will people see some relief?”

Hon. Dean Barrow,
“Well I am saying in terms of locally produced food stuff, you’re going to see that within the next month or so in terms of things like corn and beans and rice. The benefits of lower transportation cost, lower cost of inputs as a result of the falling oil prices must have that salutary effect. It is just that as I said when this started to happen, the crops were already planted so you had to wait for the planting that takes place after the fall in prices. In terms of the imported food stuff, I really am unclear as to what is happening. I am not trying to blame merchants, I simply don’t know. As I said I understand there is a lag time but that lag time has been stretching out unendingly and the Ministry of Economic Development and Consumer Protection will have to redouble its efforts to ensure that the continued high prices of the imported food stuff is not an artificial thing, it is not a manufactured thing. I’ll leave it at that.”

And while Rice, Corn and Beans are expected to go down with the new crop, what about flour? Prices spiked last year as fuel prices reached record highs, but now fuel is down, yet flour has stayed up. The PM says, he wants answers.

Hon. Dean Barrow,
“I’ve been given, I don’t want to describe it as a song and a dance but I’ve been given every explanation offered by the local manufacturers of flour as to why the price has not gone down. I am not satisfied and I have said to the members of the Cabinet subcommittee to get the expert to track the prices from February of last year to confirm in terms of the contracts that the importer said were already in place for future delivery to be absolutely certain that we are not being sold a false bill of goods.”