CEMAC Economies To Grow By 6.1 Per cent

By Godlove BAINKONG, Cameroon Tribune, 15-07-2014

BEAC’s Monetary Committee met in Malabo recently to devise ways of impacting lives.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) envisages a revised 6.1 per cent growth rate for the sub region in 2014. According to a news release that sanctioned the committee’s second ordinary session for the year in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea on July 8,

the petroleum sector is expected to grow by 3.6 per cent and the non-petroleum sector 7.1 per cent. The MPC stated in March 2014 that growth rate in the sub region could reach 6.7 per cent.

The release however notes that the envisaged growth would not be good enough to scale down poverty in the sub region as well as accelerate its emergence in the short run. As a way out, the BEAC’s Monetary Policy Committee chaired by Lucas Abaga Nchama, Governor of BEAC and Chairman of the Committee decided to facilitate the flow of liquidity in commercial banks within the sub region. This was by reducing 30 points from its key rate in view of getting liquidity to finance the economy.

By this, commercial banks will have possibilities of obtaining substantial cash to satisfy their usually growing clientele. But for the effects of this measure to trickle down to the population who usually scramble for loans to carry out one development project or the other, the banks absolutely need to review their lending mechanisms which are most often considered by many as customer-unfriendly.  

The release signed by Lucas Abaga Nchama, notes that the Malabo session also saw the adoption of the monetary objectives and a revised loan scheme of all the six CEMAC member countries for the first and fourth quarters of 2014 based on their macro-economic blueprints. Inflation on its part is expected to remain at three per cent which responds to “community norms” the press release indicated.