By Lamin Njie
The Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs has stated that the economy of the Gambia has displayed remarkable resilience in the face of global economic challenges that threatened to slow down the gradual recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Honourable Seedy Keita said this in his recent presentation of the 2024 budget before the National Assembly.
He outlined COVID-19 pandemic, the spillover effects of the Russia-Ukraine War, the growing impacts of climate change and adverse weather events as the major contributing factors.
“The combination of these multiple and overlapping exogenous shocks led to disruptions in global supply chains, high volatility in global financial markets, high inflationary pressures fuelled by rising food and energy prices, tightening of global financial conditions, and increasing cost of capital and debt servicing,” he said.
According to Minister Keita, the Government of The Gambia intervened with both fiscal and monetary policy instruments to sustain macroeconomic stability and lessen the spillover effects of these global economic challenges on the domestic economy.
“From January -November 2023, the Government through the Central Bank of The Gambia conducted foreign currency interventions of US$59.28 million to ease supply-side constraints and support the importation of essential commodities that reached critically low stock levels. The Government also tightened its monetary policy stance, increasing its policy rate by 4 percentage points over the course ofthe year to curb rising price levels. On the fiscal front, as ofthe end of October 2023, the Government provided fuel subsidies,” he added.
He further revealed that the Government made other fiscal interventions including the provision of substantial subsidies on food and agriculture inputs amounting to D664, 499,675 to support domestic production and to ease the effects of high global food prices on vulnerable households. The Minister indicated that the 30 percent basic salary increment implemented last year also helped civil servants cope with the increasing cost of living.
He said it is imperative to note that it has been a challenging task to strike a balance between fighting the downside effects of recent global economic developments and keeping the economy on a sustained growth path.
In the face of uncertainties on global economic developments, Mr Keita explained that prudent policy response is essential to strengthen the country’s economic fundamentals as the main input to consolidating recovery and accelerating reforms towards building economic resilience and improving the wellbeing of the population.
