And looking now at imports and exports, the widespread economic slowdown in the second quarter also led to a sharp decline in imports for the first six months of 2020.
Imports were also way down - and the only thing that went up is cooking oil:
Tiffany Vasquez, Statistician II
"For the period January to July 2020 Belize's imports were valued at nine hundred and twelve point eight million dollars. This was a notable decrease of nineteen point three percent or almost two hundred and nineteen million dollars when compared to January to July of 2019. This drop in effect highlight the economic impact of the COVID 19 pandemic as weakened demand of merchandise goods prompted decrease imports across almost all commodity category over the period. With a falloff in imported quantities in diesel, regular, kerosene and bunker sea fuel coupled with lower world market prices for fuel the mineral fuels and lubricants categories saw the largest decline falling by forty one percent or seventy four point seven million to one hundred and six point three million."
"The last time we had a drop in imports was in 2016 and 2017 and that was like a 4% - 5% drop. This is a 19.3% drop and I'm talking about between that same period, so that gives you a real understanding of the impact of this decline."
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