By Kebba AF Touray
The Gambia’s Finance Minister, Seedy Keita, has said that overall budget deficit is expected to slow down to D5.1 billion.
He said this on Friday, 13th December 2024, while delivering the 2025 budget speech at the National Assembly.
He said the overall budget deficit including grants stood at D7.2 Billion for the first three quarter of 2024. However he anticipates that with the expected disbursement in budget support in the last quarter and expenditure restrain, the deficit is expected to slow down to D5.1 billion by the year’s end against the Budget target of D4.5 billion.
“The Gambian economy has shown remarkable resilience in the face of global uncertainties. As a result, it is estimated to grow by 5.8 percent in 2024 compared to 4.8 recorded in 2023,” Minister Keita told the assembly.
He said the improvement is due to a stable macroeconomic environment, strategic investments in infrastructural projects, increased productivity in agriculture, recovery in tourism, and resilient remittance inflows.
On sector-specific developments, he said that crop production continues to underpin the agriculture sector growth due to support from Government and development partners.
He said, “The livestock sub-sector is estimated to maintain an upward trajectory while the fisheries and aquaculture sub-sectors are estimated to recover from contraction on account of renewed focus on aqua-cultural development”.
Overall, he said the sector is expected to grow by 6.6 percent in 2024. The industrial sector which was driven mainly by construction over the past years is estimated to register a growth of 0.8 percent.
The slowdown, he outlined is mainly due to the completion of many high-impact public projects. However, private-sector infrastructure projects remain robust.
He also said that domestic electricity generation is recording a gradual increase on account of new projects although demand continues to outstrip supply.
He reported: “The mining sector is estimated to stabilize, while manufacturing growth is estimated to register moderate growth due to competitiveness challenges. The services sector is expected to register a strong growth of 8.4 percent in 2024 driven by tourism and trade”.
He said this is due to targeted interventions by the Gambia Tourism Board (GTB) and rising consumer spending following price stabilization.
On the prices front, he said “the sustained tight monetary policy stance has triggered moderation in inflation from 16.7 percent in January to 10.0 percent by September 2024”.
Minister Keita stressed that the implementation of the foreign exchange policy by the Central Bank of the Gambia (CBG) coupled with increased foreign currency inflows, restored exchange rate stability.
He said that Public finances reflect mixed performances in 2024. The revenue mobilization reforms adopted and implemented by the Government are yielding significant results.
He reported: “As of End-September 2024, domestic revenue collection for the first nine months of the year, amounted to D24.2 billion against the target of D23.1 billion. Tax revenues amounted to D13.24 billion, a 3.36 percent increase above projections”.
He added that non-tax revenue, particularly administrative fees, reached D4.40 billion, significantly surpassing the target of D3.53 billion.
According to Minister Keita, grant disbursement remains resilient, noting that revenue and grants outturn for the year are expected to exceed the target, and concerning expenditure, budget execution has been particularly difficult this year due to unanticipated spending shocks.
These, he said include the intervention of the Government to the tune of USD20 million to pay NAWEC arrears with the independent power suppliers.
These payments served as tariff compensation to cushion the population from tariff increases which would have put toll economic challenges on the citizens.
He said: “Other expenditure pressures came from the hosting of a very successful OIC Summit. The anticipated financial support for hosting of the summit was not realized and the Government was obliged to bankroll expenditures related to the Summit”.
