Abdoulai G. Dibba
The Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS) has released the results of the finalized rebasing of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) using the Expenditure Approach (GDP-E).
The Statistician General of GBoS Nyakassi Sanyang, said the Bureau has finalized the rebasing of GDP to the 2013 base year by using GDP-E.
He said the time series data for 2004-2018 on GDP-E, were revised and rebased using the new benchmark year 2013 and that this is produced at both constant and current prices.
This he went on, means that GBoS has updated its National Accounts benchmark year for both Production and Expenditure approaches of compiling GDP estimates; that this is also in line with the compilation methodology based on the United Nations System of National Accounts 2008 (2008 SNA).
According GBoS’ Statistician General, the main data sources for the GDP-E exercise were the Integrated Household Survey (IHS), Government Finance Statistics, External Trade Statistics and the Balance of Payments Statistics (BoP).
The rebasing of GDP by expenditure approach he went on has been made a success due to the combined efforts of several players and that the cooperation and support of the various Government agencies providing the administrative data used in compiling the exercise, is very much appreciated.
“GBoS is therefore pleased to share with its users the estimates of the rebased GDP on the expenditure side following the release from the production side in 2018, after a successful conduct of an economic census which covered various economic activities in the Gambia,” Sanyang stated; that the results of the rebased GDP estimates by expenditure approach covering the five components of expenditure on GDP for the Gambia, for the period 2013-2018 were as follows:-
“In 2018 analysis on the different expenditure components reveal that expenditure on final consumption, constitute a major share in the economy with 95.3% and recorded a growth of 8.4 percent over 2017 in real terms. From the total final and household final consumptions on expenditure which were derived independently for the first time, recorded the largest share of 84.9% followed by the final consumption of General Government with 8.4% and final consumption of non-profit institutions serving households (NPISH) with 2.0%. Gross fixed capital formation which constitutes 19.3% of GDP, rose by 2.0% in real terms compared to 2017.”
“Exports of goods and services increased by 8.0% in real terms, while imports of goods and services decreased by 5.2% compared to 2017,” Sanyang concluded.
