‘Gambia performed better than most countries in the aftermath of Covid-19’

Mr. Jobe made these remarks on Friday during the launch of the joint IMF In-Country for October 2022 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa, and UNCT outreach on the Rising Cost of Living in The Gambia. The theme for the event was “living on the edge” and “managing the high cost of living and food insecurity in The Gambia.” It was held at the SDKJ International Conference Center in Bijilo.

He added that despite the lack of medical infrastructure (soft and hard) and the lack of social safety net, they successfully met the pandemic challenges in a spirit of solidarity between government, business, and community. He stated that the same principle should be used with urgency to tackle the current economic depression.

Quoting the World Bank, Jobe said that “The Gambia’s economy is set to decelerate in 2022 due to high commodity and fertilizer prices, supply chain disruptions due to the war in Ukraine, and the annual floods. Inflation reached 12.3 percent (year-on-year) in July 2022 – its highest level in the last three decades.”

Jobe outlined that the true measure of inflation in the Gambia is directly linked to the depreciation of the Dalasi against the US Dollar (and other currencies), adding that in “1985, The Gambia formulated and began implementing one of the most comprehensive economic adjustment programs devised by any country in Sub-Saharan Africa and by 1986, the Gambian economy had begun to turnaround, and the economy has continued to expand since then.”

According to GCCI President, the foreign exchange rate is a managed float where the exchange rate fluctuates based on supply and demand factors, while the government occasionally intervened in the foreign exchange market as the invisible hand.

Dwelling on the issue of food insecurity at the household and at national level, he revealed that there are two factors affecting food insecurity such as income which determines their ability to buy food; and the world marine situation that seriously constrains the transfer of food from the producing to the consuming countries.