Gov’t expenditure, net lending increase to D10.8bn

Bakary K. Jammeh, the governor of Central Bank in a statement stated that recurrent expenditure increased by 31.2 percent to D8.0 billion (8.1 percent of GDP) compared to D6.1 billion (7.0 percent of GDP) in the first half of 2019, while adding that capital expenditure on the other hand, declined by 22.9 percent to D2.8 billion (2.9 percent of GDP).

The statement further reads that: “Preliminary estimates of government fiscal operations indicated that overall deficit, including grants worsened from D0.6 billion (0.7 percent of GDP) in the first half of 2019 to a deficit of D1.6 billion (0.4 percent of GDP) in the first half of 2020. The budget deficit excluding grants, however, improved to D3.2 billion (3.2 percent of GDP) in the first half of 2020 compared to D3.5 billion (4.0 percent of GDP) in the same period in 2019.”

He said that the total revenue and grants stood at D9.2 billion (9.4 percent of GDP) in the first six months of 2020 compared to D9.1 billion (10.4 percent of GDP) in the same period last year.

“Tax revenue rose by 4.3 percent to D5.4 billion (5.5 percent of GDP) in the first half of 2020 from D5.2 billion (5.9 percent of GDP) in the corresponding period a year ago. Non-tax revenue also rose to D2.3 billion (2.3 percent of GDP) in the first six months of 2020 from D1.0 billion (1.2 percent of GDP) in the same period last year.”