The West African Monetary Agency, WAMA, is holding a week-long meeting in Dakar, Senegal.
This 45th Joint Ordinary Meeting of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee and the Operations and Administration Committee of WAMA will discuss the Ecowas macroeconomic convergence report for the year 2023; the Monetary Policy network of the Central Bank of West African States, strengthening cross-border banking supervision, exchange rate developments, and financial sector developments amongst others topics.
On the general macroeconomic performance in Ecowas, it was observed that the policy focused on strengthening economic resilience and restoring fiscal and debt sustainability as well as price and exchange rate stability.
GDP growth slowed to 3.7% in 2023 from 3.9% in 2022.
However, the Gambia recorded a growth of 4.8% in 2023, above the regional average.
Price developments: In the WAMZ, inflation rose to 27.1% in December 2023 compared to 17.3% for the Gambia which eventually dropped to 10.4% as at June 2024.
On exchange rate stability, the dalasi is reported to depreciate against the dollar just like other Ecowas currencies. The Naira, for example, depreciated against the dollar by 50.0%, while the Ghanian Cedi depreciated by 24.5%, the Leone of Sierra Leone depreciated by 15.8% while the Gambian Dalasi depreciated by a relatively low percentage point of 12.
Also, worth noting is that the Naira, Cedi, and Leone all depreciated against the dalasi, making the Gambian currency more resilient than many others in the subregion.’
Source: Sulayman Darbo
Media and Communications Unit, Office of the Governor
