In other encouraging news for the economy, the GDP also showed strong froth in the first quarter. This is a reflection of the overall economic activity and it increased by 5.2% over 2018. And, Statistician Angelita Campbell explained what drove that growth:…
Angelita Campbell - Statistician II
"For the first quarter of 2019, Belize produce goods and services totalling 782 million dollars. This is an increase of 38.6 million dollars or 5.2 percent when compared to the same period of 2018. This was due to increases within the primary and the tertiary sectors. The agriculture, hunting and forestry industry increased by 12.3 percent or 9.5 million dollars, this was attributed mainly to an increase in banana production of 22.5 percent, sugar production went up by 16.4 percent and an increase of livestock production of 1.8 percent. Citrus production on the other hand declined by 6.3 percent, this was mainly due to a drop in the orange fruit delivered due to a late start in production period, coupled with shortage of workers in that industry. The fishing industry increased by 34 percent as conch and shrimp exports increased during the quarter. Conch export grew by 57.5 percent, while shrimp export went up by 70 percent; however lobster tail and meat exports combined decreased by roughly by 2 percent. As mentioned before the fishing sector increase by 34 percent but though the increase seem like a lot, by looking at the marine export graph on the screen, we see clearly that the industry is nowhere near performing at what it used to in the early 2015. Beverages recorded an increase of 3.8 percent as both beers and soft drink production went up by 4.4 and 2.9 percent respectively. A closer look at soft drink production shows an increase from 1 million 598 thousand of gallons produced in 2018 to 1 million 645 thousand gallons produced in 2019. This was made due to an increase in market demand. Beer production increased by 4.4 percent from 658.3 thousand of gallons produced in 2018, to 722.7 thousand gallons produced in 2019. This increase was also due to an increase in market demand."
We note that Construction activities saw 3% decline in the first quarter, which - according tot he official explanation - was due to a drop in loans for construction. But, a part of that could also be the collapse of Atlantic International which was the bank of choice for many American retirees building homes in Belize. They have now been left holding very empty bags.
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