Results from the Statistical Institute of Belize’s most recent monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) survey showed that, as of September 2021, the All-Items CPI, which summarizes all categories of goods and services, stood at 104.6, up from 100.7 in September 2020. The country experienced an overall national inflation rate of 3.8 percent, reflecting that, on average, prices for items comprising the basket of goods and services commonly purchased by Belizean households were 3.8 percent higher than they were in September of last year. This overall change resulted from higher prices for motor vehicle fuels, food items, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and personal care products. The cumulative or year-to-date inflation rate for the first nine months of 2021, when compared to the same period in 2020, stood at 2.6 percent.
Click the following link to read more: Consumer Price Index, September 2021
Merchandise Trade
For the month of September 2021, Belize imported goods valuing $191.9 million. This represented a significant 71.3 percent or $79.9 million increase from the same month in 2020, when imports totaled just $112.1 million, as merchandise trade continued its recovery to pre-pandemic levels. Merchandise imports for the first nine months of the year, January to September 2021, amounted to $1.5 billion. This represented a 28.7 percent or $334.9 million increase from the same period last year when imports totaled $1.2 billion.
Total domestic exports for September 2021 amounted to $38.8 million, down by 18.4 percent or $8.8 million when compared to exports for September 2020, which were valued at $47.6 million (see Figure 1). This was primarily due to significantly lower earnings from sugar exports compared to September of last year. Merchandise exports for the period January to September 2021 totaled $335.3 million, up 11.8 percent or $35.5 million from the same period last year, due to strong performances across several export commodities.
Click the following link to read more: External Trade, September 2021
