The most recent results from the Statistical Institute of Belize’s monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) survey show that for February 2022, the All-Items CPI, which summarizes price levels across all categories of goods and services, stood at 106.6, up from 102 recorded for February 2021. This indicated that the country experienced an overall national inflation rate1 of 4.5 percent on the cost of goods and services regularly purchased by Belizean households. This resulted from higher costs for motor vehicle fuels, food, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), restaurant services, household cleaning and maintenance products, and women’s clothing. The year-to-date or cumulative inflation rate for the first two months of 2022, compared to the same period in 2021, stood at 4.3 percent. This increase was driven mainly by higher prices for fuel, food, LPG, and restaurant services.
Click the following link to read more: Consumer Price Index, February 2022
Merchandise Trade
Belize’s total imports for February 2022 were valued at $208.7 million. This was a significant increase of 49.3 percent or $68.9 million from imports for February 2021, valued at $139.8 million. For the first two months of the year, January to February 2022, Merchandise imports amounted to $399.2 million. This represented a 47 percent or $127.5 million increase from last year, when goods valued at $271.6 million were imported.
Total domestic exports for February 2022 amounted to $25.6 million, down by 18 percent or $5.6 million compared to exports for February 2021, which were valued at $31.2 million. Merchandise exports for the period January to February 2022 totaled $45.6 million. This represented a decline of 4 percent or $1.7 million from the $47.4 million in exports recorded for the same period last year.
Click the following link to read more: External Trade, February 2022
