By William Selmah,wselmah@gmail.com
Liberian President George Weah says his government will shortly unveil a new fiscal policy in line with current economic realities, blaming the country’s harsh economic conditions partly on the current fiscal policy.
The fiscal policy, he said was tailored to the time the country experienced free inflow of U.S. dollars into the economy.
He underscored significant losses in revenue due to the fall in the prices of rubber, which has had spillover effects on rubber farmers.
“Several of our rubber farmers have lost their income and ability to spend in the economy,” the President said when he gave a broadcast address to the nation on Wednesday, May 29, 2019.
The head of the ruling CDC government noted that Liberia is no longer receiving emergency assistance, grants from multilateral partners, are no longer forthcoming, while remittances in the U.S. dollar have also dropped.
The Liberian economy is at its lowest ever ebb, with inflation at an all-time high (28%), job-cuts within major employers such as Firestone and escalating foreign exchange rate currently almost hitting 200 Liberian dollars to a United States dollar.
The sudden drop in US dollar inflows puts pressure on the economy, and devalues the Liberian dollar, moving prices upward, Weah noted.
“I want you to know that I am aware of the difficulties and hardships that the rising exchange rate is causing you, and the effect it is having on prices of all goods and commodities in the market”, the President told fellow citizens in his nationwide address.
As part of widespread measures the government is instituting, he said, they are working along with partners and other branches of government to draw up a realistic budget, admitting that in time past, the country’s budget far exceeded revenues generated.
“Our actions will involve reform of our large wage bill; rationalizing Government spending to put more resources to critical sectors like health, education and agriculture; improving the way Government makes payments to Government entities and vendors who supply the Government with goods and services; and some actions on domestic arrears that the Government owes local vendors as a stimulus to the economy”, the President assured.
Despite the harsh economic constraints, President Weah said his government succeeded in paving roads in various communities in Monrovia and some leeward counties, hiring 2000 additional health workers, completely renovating the JFK medical laboratory and constructing hundreds of housing units for low income earners.
He also recalled that the CDC-led government introduced tuition-free education in all public universities in Liberia, trained more doctors for specialization in various fields of medicine, paid all WAESCE students’ fees in 2018, allotted over US$ 6 million United States dollars to the Liberia Electricity Corporation, which enabled it expand connections to more communities and paved several major highway corridors in the country.
“We implemented these and many other projects to directly and positively affect the lives of our people,” the President told the nation.