BELIZE—Belize’s economy is expected to expand by 4.5 percent in the second quarter of 2021, according to government figures released Friday.
The unemployment rate of 7.7 percent is lower than the previous year’s 5.9 percent and is expected be higher than last year’s 2.9-percent figure, according a report from the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Policy (INPE).
The unemployment number, however, is not expected to exceed 8 percent because the country is still recovering from a devastating drought and lack of electricity.
The national economic development agency, INPE, said the economic growth rate will be around 4.7 per cent this year.
That means the economy will expand by around 4 percent annually from 2021 to 2022, the agency said.
In 2021, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) will be $2.6 billion.
In 2022, that figure will be about $3.4 billion.
The growth rate is the equivalent of a 3.6 percent annual growth rate in 2021.
The economy is projected to expand 5.4 percent in 2022, while inflation is forecast to be around 1.7 percentage points lower than this year’s 6.7-percent level.
Belizean Prime Minister Jorge César Morales has said the economy is not in a recession, and he said his government will be able to keep the country in a high growth phase.
Cesar Morales said the country will maintain its growth rate this year and next year and will see an improvement in the quality of life in 2021 and 2022, he told the National Assembly in Belize City.
César said the government will implement a number of measures to create jobs and improve the quality and competitiveness of the economy.
He said he would work to increase public investment and the amount of public spending.CESAR MORALES’ FAST FACTS: Belize has a population of around 3.5 million people, about 2 million more than in 2016.
It is the second largest country in Central America after Nicaragua.
The country’s economic output in 2020 was $1.2 billion, more than double the $832 million in 2017.
Césars country has more than 10 million hectares of farmland, making it one of the world’s most productive agribusinesses.
In 2018, the state of Belize announced a $7 million grant for a high-speed train system in the country.
The Belize government said it was the first such grant in the United States and the first of its kind in Latin America.
The country has been a center for cocaine production, with about half of the cocaine seized in Belizes being exported.
Belize is also one of only three countries in the Caribbean to have a national drug-enforcement agency.CISSA, THE WORST DEATHS: The latest report from U.S. authorities found that about 4,500 children under the age of 18 have died of AIDS in Belmopan, the capital of Belmopans most populous province.
More than 3,000 more were hospitalized.
The death toll rose to 3,543 by September 20.
The government has not released the death tolls of other provinces or the capital city of Bogota.
The U.N. Children’s Fund reported in 2018 that there were 2,788 new confirmed cases of HIV and 1,932 new cases of AIDS.
Belmopanes HIV/AIDS death toll has increased by about 2,000 since October 2018.BENGALURU: Nearly one-third of Bengaluru’s population of over 2 million lives below the poverty line, according the United Nations.
In 2017, Bengaluru had a population rate of 12.6 per cent, compared to a national rate of 17.1 per cent.
The city’s poverty rate has increased from 14.1 percent in 2015 to 17.4 per cent in 2017, the report said.BENEFITS, WAGES, AND LABOR:The number of jobs in the labor force rose by almost 30,000 in 2017 to 1.86 million, according TOEFL data.
That is the largest increase in job creation in the past decade.
According to the INPE report, the unemployment rate was 6.5 per cent last year, a decrease of more than 20 percentage points from 6.8 per cent the previous two years.
The jobless rate is also lower than that of 2016, when the rate was 8.5.
The unemployment rate has been increasing since 2009, when it hit 16.9 per cent but dropped in the first quarter of 2019.
The INPE said the increase in employment has come at a time when labor force participation has been low, with the share of people not in the workforce of 14.3 per cent and 18.1 million, respectively, in 2017 and 2018.
In 2018, there were more than 6 million job openings.
In 2019, there will be more than 11 million.
