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Recent West African Monetary Zone Mission to the Gambia Ends Friday, September 28, 2007 In a press release made available to this paper, the West African Monetary Institute (WAMI) is reported to have conducted a multilateral surveillance mission to The Gambia from 2nd –11th September 2007. The mission was a “mid-year assessment of the macroeconomic developments, and convergence performance under the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) program.” According to the press release, the convergence assessment is aimed at looking into the country’s performance against the macroeconomic convergence criteria set for introducing a common currency in the West African region. The Report released by the Mission showed that the Gambian economy has maintained sustained growth since 2003, leading through the first half of 2007 thanks to broad macroeconomic stability. The Report further stated that strong macroeconomic fundamentals are the basis of evidence of sustained economic growth. “The Gambia has satisfied and sustained her performance on the four primary criteria and three secondary criteria that were met in 2006. There are strong indications that the Gambia will sustain the performances in the primary criteria and will improve on the secondary criteria. The Gambia’s performance on the four primary criteria are as follows: 1. Inflation rate was 3.7%, which is well within the specified convergence criteria of WAMZ 2. The fiscal deficit (on commitment basis, excluding grants) was 2.7%, as at December 2006, to a surplus of 1.7% as at end June 2007. 3. Central Bank financing of Fiscal deficit was 0.0% against the criterion of < 10% of previous year’s tax revenue, which has been on a consistent basis since 2004. 4. Gross external reserves (in months of import cover) were 5.5 which is 2.5 months above the WAMZ requirement. “Government’s fiscal performance,” the release went on, “improved significantly in 2006 despite the budgetary commitments for the AU summit. Total revenue (excluding grants) improved from the level of 18.6% of GDP in June 2006 to 23.9% of GDP in June 2007. The overall fiscal balance on commitment basis excluding grants indicated a surplus of 1.7% of GDP relative to a deficit of 4.5% recorded in June 2006. The Gambia has successfully met the primary convergence criteria for the past 3-4 years.” Source: The Point CommentsJohn Isemede - Gambia, Africa Friday, October 26, 2007 2:03 AM Dear WAMI Staff,
This is a very good report on the Gambia and not all members can post this result. I have followed the trend of WAMI activities for some yeras and a lot need to be done to bring in Liberia into the Group. Secondly, most West Africans,even the few Educated are not aware of this body on common Central Bank and monetray Institute in the Sub -region. There is still a long way .i.e the integration of the CFA Zones with WAMI to form a true economic zone. We need seminars,Workshops from the elementary schools to the private sector to sentize all. Thanks. John Isemede - Gambia, Africa Wednesday, October 31, 2007 2:49 AM Informal trade in the Sub region should be another important thing for WAMI to take seriously. The few members have different tax regimes, import duties at variance and VAT ranging from 5-20% in this same common market.
Wages,standards, infrastructure and the cost of doing Business not uniform. WAMI and the other bodies in ECOWAS need to do more to harmonize issess and structures on ground. We have to start by building foundation to put the Structure as the proposed single currency in 4 or 5 States for now and later 15 after the integration of the CFA will not change the current scenario of informal movement of goods/capital and smuggling across the porous borders in the region. There are some overlaps between ECOWAS/LUMOA. Pls. see more on my Book,serach Yahoo for
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