The Governor of Central Bank of The Gambia
By Buba Gagigo
The Governor of the Central Bank of The Gambia Buah Saidy has revealed that the outstanding stock of domestic debt has increased to D37. 19 billion at the end of December 2021.
The Governor made the revelation during a press conference at his office in Banjul on Wednesday.
“The outstanding stock of domestic debt increased to D37.19 billion or by 7.1 percent at end-December 2021, compared to 4.3 percent growth in the same period, a year ago. The increase in domestic debt was on account of an increase in bond issuance resulting from the implementation of the debtreprofiling strategy. Consequently, short-term securities contracted by 2.1 percent and 5.3 percentage points as a share of domestic debt,” he told journalists on Wednesday.
On the price developments, the Governor Saidy said food inflation inches up by 1.0 percentage point in December 2021, from 9.2 percent in September 2021 and 7.0 percent from the same period last year.
“CPI inflation increased by 5.0 percentage points month-on-month to 7.6 percent in December 2021, and from 5.6 percent in December 2020. The acceleration in headline inflation was mainly driven by the rise in food prices associated with supply constraints and domestic structural bottlenecks. Food inflation inched up by 1.0 percentage points to 10.2 percent in December 2021, from 9.2 percent in September 2021 and 7.0 percent from the same period last year. Oil and fats, sugar, jam, honey & sweets, and bread & cereals were the main drivers of annual food inflation,” he added.
The Governor said similarly, non-food inflation also accelerated both on a quarterly and yearly basis.
“It rose to 4.9 percent in December 2021 relative to 4.8 percent in September 2021 and 4.4 percent in the corresponding period a year ago, attributed to increases in prices of alcoholic beverages, tobacco & narcotics, health, housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuels,” he said.
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