Dear Editor,

According to the website  https://countrymeters.info/en/Belize/economy, Belize’s debt in US dollars is 3.365 billion and Belize’s GDP in US dollars is $ 1.997 billion, which means that the country has a debt to GDP ratio of 168.5 %.

This is phenomenal. I warn that the global financial crisis has not climaxed and things will get worse before they get better. In 2006 in the US, people started to default on their mortgage loans, but it did not climax until 2008.

Similarly, in the US, the financial crisis is just beginning, with the start of bankruptcies of companies like Brooks Brothers, Hertz and JC Penny, and the worst is yet to come.

China, the world’s second largest economy, is also weak. China recently nationalized 9 financial institutions.

Belize needs to strengthen its internal economy and increase food security through investments in agriculture. The Atlanta Fed projects that the US’s second quarter gross domestic product will decline by 52.8 %. There are still protests in many US states over the killing of George Floyd by police, and President Trump, on July 20, 2020, said that he would send federal agents to major cities where the protests are occurring.

The major source of tourists and remittances for Belize is the US. The US is Belize’s number one trading partner.

Get ready, it is going to be a bumpy ride.

Yours truly,

Brian Ellis Plummer