And the former governor of the Central Bank has his own concerns. In the third part of our conversation with him, Glen Ysaguirre says that the Scotiabank portfolio, which is made up of mostly personal loans and residential mortgages, may perform very differently after COVID 19. And that's because so many of the debtors will have lost their jobs or gotten pay cuts.

He said the unpredictability is a major factor for the regulator to look at:

Glenford Ysaguirre - Former Governor, Central Bank of Belize

"We do not know how any of the portfolios currently will perform in the future. The assessment, when they did their analysis and made their bid to purchase the institution, most of it may have been done in the pre-COVID period. And so, the performance of the portfolio will be quite different, right now than it was then. So, there may be some need to revisit some of those analyses. Secondly, what is important, after the acquisition, is the willingness and the capacity - more so the willingness of ownership to inject new capital in the event the anticipated gains from the merger/the acquisition are not realized, and there is some issue with capital and stability. And the willingness is more important than the capacity because they may have the capacity, but they may not be willing to do so and may want to force some kind of regulatory forbearance. And I don't know how much that would be advisable at this stage."

Tomorrow, we'll have the final part of our interview with Ysaguirre.

A Theme For A Trying Time

As we told you earlier a good number of expatriates are expected to come home for September Celebrations. But they'll want a souvenir and they'll be eager to buy that celebratory T-shirt, the one emblazoned with the celebratory theme, that's yet to be written.

The good news is you could be the one to write it. This afternoon the National Celebrations Commission announce the 2020 theme competition. It's an invitation to all Belizeans both at home and abroad to submit their ideas for the overarching theme of the year's most patriotic celebrations.

The Theme that shouldn't not be more than ten words can be emailed to Septembercelebrations@gmail. com or dropped off at the NICH office on Regent Street, The Bliss Institute for the Performing Arts, or any of the House of Cultures countrywide. The winner gets five hundred dollars.

Deadline for submissions is Wednesday July 15th, 2020.

Caring For Kontiki

This morning, representatives of the Ministry of Education joined residents of the Kontiki area San Ignacio Town for an important ground-breaking ceremony. The Ministry of Education intends to build a Government-owned primary school and high school in that part of the municipality.

It should provide much-needed relief to the students living in that area who have had to attend school in surrounding areas that are far away from their neighbourhood. Parents and their children joined their area Rep., Omar Figueroa, in welcoming the Education Ministry officials for this positive development in their part of the twin towns.

With video provided by the Government Press Office, here's what the Education Minister had to say about the plans for these 2 schools.

Construction for these schools is expected to start within a few weeks' time.

SIB Says Imports Went Down Sharply In May

The Statistical Institute of Belize has released its latest study on the country's economic performance. They say that for the month of May 2020 - when Belize was in shutdown mode, imports had a major decrease of 39.7% when compared to the same period last year. Exports are also down by a negligible 0.8%, or 0.3 million dollars for that same period.

Imports declined across all commodities but, the biggest drop came from machinery and transport equipment, which was down by 47%. It went from 34 million dollars in May 2019, to only 18 million this year.

Imports destined for the Commercial Free Zone went down by 41% from 24.9 million dollars last year, to 14.8 million this year.

Food imports also fell by 29% from 25.1 million dollars in May 2019, to 17.9 million dollars this year.

Turning now to exports, the only major category that saw a decrease was our marine products. Earnings fell sharply from 1.7 million dollars in May of last year, to only 0.1 million dollars. That's a steep, 1.6 million-dollar decrease.

Earnings from sugar, citrus products, and bananas, on the other hand, all increased in May of 2020.

Comparing the first 5 months of this year to last year, the SIB says that exports are down by 16% or 28.4 million dollars for 2020. The total earnings for those first 5 months were only $149.3 million dollars.

Consumer Price Came Down Due to Fuel Costs

On the topic of the cost of living, the Statistical Institute of Belize says that food and home rental costs went up for May 2020, when compared to May 2019. That increase was balanced out by the fall in pump prices for fuel and liquid petroleum gas.

Food and non-alcoholic beverages saw a notable increase of 1.1% for the month of May 2020. This was primarily due to a spike in prices for freshly cut vegetables such as tomatoes, cabbage, sweet peppers, onions, and oranges. Lesser increases were also noted for rice and eggs.

Transport recorded the most notable decline, which was due to the overall 2.9% decrease in the pump prices for fuel. At the pump, the average price per gallon of regular gasoline fell by almost $4 last month. Diesel was down by almost $3 per gallon.

The Orange Walk District experienced the highest inflation rate of 1.7% in the country. PG recorded the lowest at -2.3%