By:Bakary Touray Jr
Mr. Mambury Njie, the Gambia’s Finance Minister, has foreseen that the estimated impact of COVID-19 on the Gambian economy, is estimated to result in a budget financing gap of about D2.5 billion.
Njie made this statement today, at the Legislature while presenting a document entitled ‘Coronavirus economic impact assessment analysis’.
The report, he said, also suggests that economic growth in 2020, will be 3 percentage points lower than the initial estimates of 6.3 percent at the beginning of the year.
In terms of revenue performance, according to the finance minister, it is estimated that close to D1.0 billion will be lost in revenue for the year(equivalent of one month of GRA revenue collection in 2020).
“Decline in economic growth is estimated to emanate from trade, remittances, construction, hotels and restaurants,” he stated, adding that mild effects are anticipated in the manufacturing sector, as supply side constraints through the lower supply of production inputs and other supplies will run low for most factory floors.
“The budget deficit is expected to widen from 1.5 to 2.1 GDP with the impact of COVID-19”, the finance minister explained.
While noting that the supply remain constraint due to closure of factories in China, Europe and Middle East, as such international trade taxes, he noted that domestic supply for basic commodities would also experienced short term adverse shocks, thus posing the risks of price hikes.
In order to mitigate these effects, Njie believed that striker expenditure control and planning will provide a suitable mechanism to lessen the impact to ensure that sound economic gains registered in the past two years are not equally lost due to COVID-19.
