#Headlines

Gambia’s domestic debt increases to D34.2bn

Sep 1, 2020, 11:43 AM | Article By: Pa Modou Cham

Bakary K. Jammeh, the governor of the Central Bank of The Gambia (CBG) has recently revealed that the country’s outstanding domestic debt stock increased to D34.2 billion (33.2 percent of the GDP as at end-July 2020 from D33.1 billion (36.9 percent of the GDP) as at end December 2019.

Speaking during the Monetary Policy Committee meeting, the governor added that the stock of Treasury and Sukuk Al Salaam bills increased by 4.8% to D20.3 billion as at end-July 2020.

“The yields on the 91- day, 182-day, and 364-day Treasury bills declined from 3.98 percent, 6.87 percent, and 8.77 percent at end-July 2019 to 1.89 percent, 5.55 percent, and 8.00 percent respectively in July 2020.”

Dwelling on monetary developments, Governor Jammeh highlighted that the money supply (M2) growth slowed to 16.4% at end-June 2020 from 24.4% as at end June 2019.

Year-on-year, he said the net foreign assets of the banking system increased by 27.4% to D17.3 billion, adding that net domestic assets grew by 10.4% to D27.1 billion during the period under review.

“Reserve money growth decelerated markedly from 21.2% in March 2019 to 16.8% in the year to end-June 2020. Growth in reserve money was driven largely by the increase in the net foreign assets (NFA) of the Central Bank.”