“Major decline in imports, slight decline in exports,” says Statistical Institute of Belize

By BBN Staff: Belize’s expenditure on imports dropped by over 30 percent while revenues from exports were down by 2.7 percent for the month of April, according to the Statistical Institute of Belize (SIB).

The SIB’s latest External Trade Bulletin, which was released today, showed that, for the month of April, Belize imported goods valuing $102.6 million which represented a 30.4 percent or $44.8 million decrease from the same month in 2019. Meanwhile, the total value of domestic exports for April 2020 amounted to $47.6 million, down 2.7 percent or $1.3 million when compared to exports for April 2019.

“COVID-19 restrictions significantly impacted import figures for the month. While the ports of entry remained open to import cargo throughout April of this year, the clearing of those goods occurred at a slower rate due to reduced operating hours, in addition to the fact that the initial focus was mainly on the clearing of essential items,” the SIB said.

The SIB also noted that the closure of Belize’s borders to persons traveling into and out of the country resulted in a noticeable decline in passenger goods, bringing down the imports for most commodity categories and said that decreases in sugar, citrus, and crude oil, were responsible for the decline in export revenues.

For the first quarter of 2020, imports amounted to $587.9 million, representing a 2.4 percent or $14.5 million decrease from the same period last year, while exports for the first quarter of 2020 totaled $110.1 million, which represents a drop of 21.6 percent or $30.3 million from the same period last year.

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