We also asked the new Deputy Prime Minister about what Belize's national debt looks like at this time. As we have been reporting - since the GDP contraction that came with COVID, the Debt to GDP ratio at the end of this fiscal year in March 2021 is projected to be about 150%, which is more than twice the prudential benchmark.

Hyde told us that far as he has heard, the national debt is close to 4 billion dollars:

Hon. Cordel Hyde - DPM/Minister of Natural Resources

"Wow! It's bad. We will get the official figures today, but I'm herring its bad. I'm hearing its closer to 4 billion dollars. Our debt to GDP ratio is beyond 130%. We are in a bad way. These guys wreck the train over the last 13 years. They left us with a real bag, but I'd rather wait to hear officially what the central bank and the financial secretary has, but it's very worrisome and we are going to have to be of our best as a government. We are going to have to rise to the occasion to take us from where we are. We are going to have to be frank with the Belizean people as to where we are, where we need to go and how we are going to get there."

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PM: Belize's Credit Maxed Out

Also, in the PM's late evening statement came the pronouncement about the quite well-known fact that that the country's credit is maxed out and that as a nation we aren't making enough to pay our Bills.

But while the PM announced these facts like they're new information he has to have know that these massive debts have been building for months since the onset of COVID. Briceno said it's unsustainable.

"While in opposition, we had railed against the mismanagement and corruption by the past UDP government that you rightly and soundly rejected at the polls. The magnitude of mismanagement was verified at our briefing by the technocrats from the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Belize. These technocrats jointly expressed that the Government has been functioning with unsustainable fiscal and debt positions. The presentation to Cabinet by the technocrats revealed that Central Government's revenues have fallen by over $166.8 million or by 24.9 percent. This is far worse than we had anticipated. Government has been borrowing to meet the monthly wage and pensions bill and other current expenses to the tune of around $30 million per month. As a result, Central Government's debt has jumped from 97.7 percent of GDP to 132.9 percent of GDP. In simple terms, the UDP Government maxed out the credit card. We do not earn enough to pay our bills. We are more than double the internationally acceptable debt to GDP threshold and the second highest in the Caribbean. This is unsustainable."

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