An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission led by David Dunn is currently in The Gambia on a working visit to assess the economic performance as at end-September the sixth and final review of The Gambia's three-year programme under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF).

The mission met with the minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Abdou Kolley and the governor of the Central Bank of The Gambia, Momodou Bamba Saho, as well as other senior members of government and representatives of the National Assembly and the private sector amongst others. Â"The Gambian economy has performed better in 2009 than it was previously projected", the IMF mission head, David Dunn, remarked yesterday, at a press conference convened at the conference room of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs in Banjul, after completing the assessment.

The excellent performance of the country's economy, Dunn stated, was mainly because of a second consecutive year of strong growth in agriculture. However, he observed that tourism has been hard hit by the global economic crisis and that a sharp drop-off in remittances from the Gambians abroad, has also weakened residential construction. Dunn added that the IMF mission expects real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth to be about four and half to five percent in 2009, up from its previous projection of about three and half per cent. Looking ahead, Dunn went on, real GDP growth is projected to rise slightly in 2010, based on a partial recovery in tourism and remittances.

Given the uncertainty of weather conditions for agriculture and prevailing weakness in some countries with economic linkages to The Gambia, the IMF head of mission said there are still downside risks to the outlook for 2010. Inflation, which he said has already fallen considerably in 2009, is expected to remain low. "Performance under the PRGF-supported programme has been generally positive," Dunn disclosed. According to Dunn, all end-September quantitative performance criteria were met, except for the fiscal target, which, he said was missed due to large spending overruns in the second quarter of the year.

Targets on official international reserves and the Central Bank's net domestic assets, Dunn said were achieved with comfortable margins. He said the implementation of structural benchmarks was good, although there were modest delays. While cherishing the excellent performances of The Gambia's 2009 economy, Dunn disclosed that the government still faces a heavy debt burden. The interest on government debt, he said, is expected to consume nearly 20 per cent of government revenues on 2009, mostly the interest on domestic debt. In contrast to a slight reduction in domestic debt that was planned for in the 2009 budget, Dunn said the spending overruns led to more debt and increased pressure on interest rates.

In conclusion, Dunn said "the mission welcomes the Gambian authorities' intention to take corrective actions for the missed end-September performance criterion, notably by preparing a budget for 2010 that will lower governmentÂ's domestic debt slightly, ease pressure on treasury bills yields and generate savings from lower interest payments," he said and vowed "on this basis, the IMF Executive Board could consider the sixth review of the PRGF in early 2010".