By: Kebba AF Touray
The Governor of the Central Bank of the Gambia, Mr Buah Saidy, has disclosed to the media that the inflation rate accelerated from 8.2 percent in March 2022 to 11.7 percent in April 2022.
Mr. Saidy made the disclosure during the Monetary Committee Meeting, held on Tuesday, 31 May 2022, at the Central Bank of the Gambia (CBG).
“Inflationary pressures continued to persist with headline inflation accelerating from 8.2 percent in March 2022 to 11.7 percent in April 2022 respectively,” said Mr. Saidy.
He added that the significant rise in headline inflation is driven primarily by the surge in food prices, which picked up from 9.2 percent in March 2022 to 11.6 percent in April 2022.
“Seasonal effects of Ramadan also contributed to the rise in prices of some food items. Non-food inflation, on the other hand, moderated slightly to 7.3 percent from 7.5 percent during the same period,” Governor Saidy stated.
He further revealed that inflation is forecasted to remain elevated in the short term, premised on the rising global food prices, upward adjustments in energy prices, structural challenges at the Gambia Ports and some exchange rate pass-through.
“However, in the medium-term, price pressures are expected to ease, and inflation will return to its long-run trend,” he posited.
Mr. Saidy informed the gathering that domestic debt remained relatively stable at 37.2 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2022, stressing that short-term treasury bills and sukuk al-salam bills constituted 50 percent of total domestic stock.
This, he explained, is followed by the thirty-year bond to 24 percent, three -year bond at 19 percent, five -year bond at 6 percent and the seventy-year bond accounted for only 1 percent of the total, and that debt service as a percentage of tax revenue declined to 2.7 percent in 2022 from 3.1 percent in 2021.
“Private sector credit expanded by10.9 percent in March 2022 compared to 8.4 percent a year ago. Strong Credit Growth was mainly aided by significant growth in construction, distributive trade, fishing, energy and financial institutions sectors,” Saidy reported.
The boss of the bankers’ bank finally reported that annual broad money growth decelerated by 21.0 percent in March 2022 from 25.7 percent in the corresponding period last year, whereas annual growth in reserve declined markedly to 14 percent from a growth of 32.4 percent over the same period. Gambia Government
