The country’s legislators have been told by the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Mr. Mambury Njie, that as of June 2021, remittances {into The Gambia} recorded US$403.6 million, a 61.4 percent increase from total remittances recorded in the same period, a year earlier.
Njie, who was delivering his 2022 Budget speech at the National Assembly in Banjul, on Thursday, 28th October 2021, also informed that revenue and grants for the first nine months of the 2021 fiscal year had declined from D15.5 billion in 2020, to D11.8 billion. That the 24 percent decline between the two periods ‘is mostly attributed’ to the decline in Project grants by 48 percent and program grants by 73 percent.
The Finance and Economic Affairs chief gave an explanation: “The decline in grants disbursements is due to the fact that much of the grants that were to be received in 2021 were front-loaded in 2020 to help the country deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. And additional resources that were received as grants in 2020 for pandemic relief were not repeated in 2021.”
He further disclosed that total expenditure decreased by 6 percent from D16.8 billion in the first nine months of 2020 to D15.9 billion in the corresponding period of 2021; noting the decline is attributed to a reduction in capital expenditure by 5 percent from D4.6 billion to D4.4 billion.
As part of efforts for fiscal consolidation, the minister told the lawmakers that the current expenditure also declined by 6 percent from D12.2 billion in the first nine months of 2020, to D11.5 billion in the corresponding period of 2021. He outlined that over the review period, personnel emoluments increased by 11 percent to D3.3 billion; interest payments increased by 6 percent to D2.6 billion, while other charges declined by 18 percent due to the significant decline in Covid-19 related expenditure.
“The overall fiscal deficit including grants increased from D1.3 billion as at end September 2020 to D4.1 billion in the corresponding period of 2021. This is due to the decline in total grants over the period,” said the Economic Affairs Minister. He highlighted that revenue loss due to exemptions decreased significantly by 56 percent from D2.3 billion in the first eight months of 2020 to D1.4 billion in the same period of 2021. He attributed this significant decline to the ‘establishment of the Tax Expenditure Committee’ under Finance Ministry as part of revenue administration reforms introduced in 2020.
Speaking further, Njie pointed out that the public debt stock amounted to D81.8 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2021, compared to D68.5 billion in the same period of 2020. Of the total debt stock in 2021, domestic debt constituted D46.3 billion, whilst external debt constitutes D35.5 billion, according to him.
He argued the preliminary balance of payments estimates shows that the current account balance improved from a deficit of US$41.1 million in the second quarter of 2020 to a deficit of US$5.6 million in the same period of 2021, adding the significant improvement ‘is due to increased remittances’.
The goods account, he continued, recorded a deficit of US$134.4 million in the second quarter of 2021, from a deficit of US$122.4 million in the same period of 2020. This reflects the high importation of goods during the current period compared to a year earlier.
“In the second quarter of 2021, the imports totaled US$141.5 million, compared to US$126.2 million in the same period of 2020. Export revenue increased to US$ 7.0 million from US$3.7 million over the review period. 48. The service account balance improved from a deficit of US$10.9,” Njie told his audience at the National Assembly.
