By Binta Jaiteh
Officials of Central Bank of The Gambia (CBG) Wednesday appeared before the National Assembly select committee for finance and public accounts committee (FPAC) to present the bank 2019 report on recent Global Domestic Economy.
Speaking during the session, Buah Saidy, CBG governor said: “the International Monetary Fund (IMF) global output contracted in 2020, due to the impact of covid-19 on various commodities economies in the world. The IMF world economic outlook ( WEO) update of April 2021.
He revealed that the global economy is estimated to have contracted by 3.3 percent in 2020, adding that advanced economies strong policy supports among other factors mitigated the impact of the pandemic.
“Emerging market and developing economies is estimated to have contracted by 2.2 percent in 2020 smaller than the forecast in October 2020,” he told lawmakers.
“Global inflation consistent demands with global on average is estimated to have subdued in 2020 by 3.2 percent compared to 3.5 percent in 2019. Development in the domestic Economy has dampened in 2020 compared to the good performance in 2019. External Sector ( BOP) , balance of payments estimates shows that the current account balance worsened to a deficit US$11.9.34 million ( 6.75 percent of GDP) in twelve months of 2020 citing that from a deficit of US$36.60 million (2.07 percent of GDP) in the corresponding period of 2019 due to the deterioration in both the goods and service account balances,” Mr Saidy said.
“The goods account balance is estimated to worsened to a deficit of US$512.71 million ( 29.00 percent of GDP) in twelve months of 2020 from a deficit of US$36.60 million ( 2.07 percent of GDP)in corresponding period of 2019. Services account deteriorated to a deficit of US$50.01 million or by 105.11 percent in twelve months of 2020 from a surplus of US$105.11 million in the same period a year ago. Monetary developments annual money supply as at end-March 2021 grew by 25.7 percent relative to a growth rate of 18.1 percent observed in the preceding year.
Meanwhile, he said the foreign exchange and market developments exchange rate of the dalasis remains resilient despite its modest depreciation, adding that from March 2020 to 2021 , dalasi depreciated against the USD by 0.48 percent Euro, pounds by 8.95 percent and CFA by 5.67 percent.
He continued: “The volume of foreign currency, transactions in the last twelve months to end March 2021 totaled US$2.19 billion in the same last year. The Banking industry remains stable and profitable with a high level of capital and liquidity despite the adverse effect of the pandemic.