Liberia: Weah's Microeconomic Achievements

As the scramble for the Executive Mansion continues among 20 politicians in the country with just a month to the conduct of the October 2023 Presidential and Legislative Elections, incumbent George M. Weah can point to some of his achievements as reasons why he should stay on as the nation's Chief Executive.

On the economic front, the Liberian leader can boast of his achievements in bringing microeconomic stability (ECONOMY) to the country despite the interruption of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that devastated every fabric of the nation in his second year as President of Liberia.

Weah can boast of the re-establishment of macro stability after inheriting a weak macro foundation from the Unity Party (UP) under the leadership of former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. President Weah reformed governance at the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) giving credibility to the new Central Bank of Liberia.

Weah's administration rebuilt and protected net international reserves from the lows of the former administration; undertook a reform of the Liberian currency with the printing of L$48 billion including coins and established remarkable exchange rate stability.

The Weah administration brought down inflation from a high of 30% to 7% which is lower than where the previous administration left inflation in 2018; the fastest inflation collapses in the recorded history of Liberia; raised the highest level of domestic revenue and passed the biggest ever National Budget recorded in history in 2022.

President Weah recognized hidden UP Government debt to the Central Bank of Liberia; fixed and rationalized total debt to the CBL; resolved all legacy debt owed by the previous administration to banks and the private sector and increased government credit rating.

The Weah administration at the same time stabilized the financial sector on the brink of insolvency from poor regulatory oversight from the past administration era; and ended borrowing from the CBL to pay the government's salary.

Among other things, the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) administration reformed a broken wage system from the past administration era thereby saving US$32 million annually and reformed the salary of 15,000 government workers during harmonization.

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