National Monetary and Financial Committee of Congo - A slight upturn of the economy experienced at the end of the first quarter of 2018
12 Jul, 2018
The Committee held its ordinary meeting on July 12, 2018 in Brazzaville, under the chairmanship of honourable Calixte Nganongo, Minister of Finance and Budget. The meeting was also attended by Mrs. ingrid Olga Ghislaine Eboucka- Babackas, Congolese Minister of planning, statistics and regional integration, Abbas Mahamat Tolli , Gouvernor of the Central African States Bank and Michel Dzombala, national director of the Central African States Bank.
The press release issued at the closing session puts it that the Committee reviewed the developments of the national and international economic climate.
At the international level, the Committee noted the ongoing upturn of the world economic growth in the first quarter of 2018. Taking into account the whole year and according to the latest projections of the IMF, the growth was expected to be 3.9% after reaching 3.8% in 2017. This result is particularly due to the recovery in investments in developed countries, the strengthening of the world trade and the commodities price increase.
At the national level, the Committee noted a slight upturn of the economy in the first quarter of 2018. In 2018, the growth rate of the actual GDP basically backed by the oil sector should be 1.9% after a recession of 2.6 in 2017. As regard prices, the inflation rate measured on an annual basis should reach 1.6% against 0.5 in 2017 due to the quivering of domestic demand along with the return of external inflation.
As regard the budgetary plan, the Committee noted that the 2018 budget surplus is expected to reach 5.6% of the GDP. As a consequence, efforts to mobilize revenues and to rationalize expenditure should be upheld.
In the monetary sector, the monetary basis should increase by 4.8 % at the end of 2018, which shows a progress of the domestic credit of 7.6%, despite a decrease of the external assets by 28.2%.
As it reviewed foreign accounts, the Committee forecasted a possible significant decrease of the current account deficit by 1.1 % of the GDP in 2018 against 2.8 % in 2017.
Regarding the capital market, activities were characterized by a better access to Congolese banks for the refinancing of the Central Bank following the implementation of the new operational system of the monetary policy , by the increase of the Congolese treasury activities on the open subscription gilt bonds market.
