The Gambia’s Finance and Economic Affairs Minister has attributed the sharp increase in prices of essential commodities to the impact of Covid-19 Pandemic.
He was speaking earlier today, Wednesday, 9th February 2022, while responding to the question raised by the National Assembly Member (NAM) for Kombo East Constituency, Hon. Lamin F Conta. He has asked Minister Mambury Njie to update the assembly on the reasons for the price hike of the essential commodities, stressing also that the role of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is to ensure price stability.
Responding to the parliamentarian queries, Njie pointed out that MPC is the top monetary decision-making (body) of the Central Bank of The Gambia (CBG), with the primary objective of maintaining price and exchange rates stability.
“The price hike is not only a national issue, but [also] a global phenomenon. The increase in the price of essential commodities over the last two years, reflects the global trend we have seen across all countries, due to the COVID19 trend which causes supply chain challenges and increases trade charges, which are inflationary”, the Finance and Economic Affairs Minister held.
He added that domestic structural challenges, such as the congestion at the sea port, shortage during the peak of the pandemic all further fueled inflation.
Saying although the CBG is responsible for maintaining price stability, Njie opined it’s likely that the recent price hike is blamed on the Ministry of Trade. He continued that most of the commodity price issues (price and supply in the country) during the pandemic were channeled to the Ministry. He opined this might be the reason why people attribute hike in prices to the Ministry of Trade.
“On its part, the government is working on addressing some of the issues which have caused the price hike, which include port expansion to reduce port congestion and charges”, said Njie.
On whether the Trade Ministry is part of the MPC, as asked by the Hon. Conta, the Finance Minister responded in the negative, saying the Ministry of Trade is not part of the MPC; however, he informed the NAMs that the said Ministry has an avenue to have its input [on MPC decision].
Bakau Constituency representative Hon. Hassan Touray asked that if the MPC is to regulate prices and exchange rates, and the price hike is yet to be addressed, “don’t you think the committee fails its citizens to stabilize price in the country”?
These were the minister’s words in reply: “No, I respectfully disagree with the statement that government fails its citizens in that regard. We did not fail [them].” He said the MPC does not control prices because that would tantamount to price control. “I said the primary objective of the MPC is to maintaining price and exchange rates stability, he argued, adding they were all aware that at least, Central Bank had been doing a good job in terms of inflation and exchange rate controls, but the market determines.
“Our main objective is to make sure the goods are available, and I think even during the pandemic, government did ensure that not only it was available, but [we] have the tag on the prices (using regulation and legal instruments)”, Njie told the House.
