Belize - Public Expenditure Review (English)

The Belize Public Expenditure Review (PER) provides a comprehensive analysis of the country's fiscal policies and spending patterns over the last decade and offers a road map for policy makers to achieve more sustainable and equitable development outcomes and enhance the performance of public institutions. The review highlights the significant progress made by Belize in recent years, particularly in terms of fiscal consolidation and debt management. It also identifies several challenges that need to be addressed, including deficiencies in the public financial management (PFM) framework and high levels of expenditure rigidity, especially related to the public sector wage bill. The review also emphasizes the need to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public spending in key sectors such as education and health by addressing challenges such as the decline in learning outcomes and participation rates despite the high levels of public expenditure allocated to the education sector, as well as limited availability of human resources in the health sector, inefficient health financing and service delivery models, and deficiencies in health sector governance. To address these challenges, the report recommends a range of policy measures, including the adoption of a rules-based fiscal management framework, improvements in value for money on key social and investment programs, and the containment of growth in the public sector wage bill.