By: Hafsatu Z Bangura
The institute for Governance Reform (IGR) on the 6th June 2022 at its main office in Freetown has launched its quarterly economic update which highlights the quarterly trends of Sierra Leone’s economy.
The head of Business and Surveys Dr. Aaron Hale in his opening remarks talked about the recent quarterly update and the 2021 inflation rate.
Mr Mohamed Ibrahim Senior Economist IGR said the IGR now has an advocacy pillar and one such pillar is the IGR quarterly economic update and also the quarterly Economic outlook which he said focuses on the economic state of a country.
He spoke on the inflation and monetary policy as he said the national year on inflation for October 2021 stood at 14.55%.
Thus he said indicated an upward swing compared to 11.63% in September and by November inflation he said jumped to 15.77%, demonstrating a continued increase in the price of basic goods and services.
He continued that the last quarter of 2021 saw inflation continued to surge by an additional 2.15% reaching its highest level across 2021 at 17.94% in December.
Mr Mohamed Justice said inflation ebbed and flowed throughout 2021and that the third quarter shows an average of 11.01% while the last quarter witnessed an average inflation rate of 16.09% this he said shows the year on year inflation increase at an alarming rate in the last quarter and such rise could be largely contributed to the disruption within the global supply chain caused by COVID-19 in the last quarter.
He said over the years IGR operated without an economist pillar adding that his goal is to have a quarterly uptake on the economy of Sierra Leone and it focuses on two main area that are the fiscal and monetary and the functions of the economic variables at the Ministry of Finance i.e to say Tax, government spending, central bank and interest rate and exchange rate.
He furthermore said the quarterly update is for policy makers and for citizens to be aware of what happens in the economy and its impacts.
Mr Mohamed said its impact in each quarterly update recommendations will be given.
He said in the report captured over reliance on importation of goods in the country which he said is creating higher inflation in the country and that the current inflation rate is 24.87% which he said is not good for a country wherein the income level of people is really low and as an institution that is keen to proffer solutions in addressing areas of over reliance is reduced in creating import substitution strategies.
He said things that we spend so much money on will stay as a country producing them by developing local entrepreneurs that will come on board to help change the narratives and that what is been proposed in the documents presented are utilized.
In the field of Agriculture, he said government spends so much money on the importation of rice over two hundred million dollars which he said the country pours so much in importing rice when we have fertile lands to cultivate and have our own produce.
Another key element he talked about in the proposed document he said is the storage facilities in the petroleum industry as he said Government should buy enough quantity of petroleum products that will serve the nation on an annual basis rather than buying in bits.
He said IGR is reputable for its quality data and that it’s been reviewed by members who are managing the economy.
The likes of the Director of Monetary Policy Division, Chief Economist of the Country, Senior Economist of World Bank, Director of research at the Ministry of Finance are members whom reviewed the proposed quarterly economic update of IGR.
He stated that by calling on citizens to read the report and for Sierra Leoneans to change the narrative and as a country we have the requirements and all what it takes for us to put pressure on government for the better things to be done.
“Hence the need for such reports that the reports are out for all Sierra Leoneans to read the report to hold Parliamentarians to be held accountable for the bad shape of the economy”, He concluded.