2 Comments
The Government of Sierra Leone has missed key economic targets for 2024, mainly due to higher-than-expected spending on road and energy projects.
As a result, the country did not meet its goals in three areas: Net Credit to Government, Net Domestic Asset, and Net International Reserves.
These issues were pointed out during a visit by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from April 1 to 11, 2025, which reviewed progress under Sierra Leone’s new economic programme. The IMF said that the country’s economy is still strong, with growth expected to rise from 4.0% in 2024 to 4.5% in 2025. Inflation has dropped, from 54.5% in October 2023 to 13.1% in February 2025, and the exchange rate has been steady since mid-2023.
Despite these improvements, the Government’s budget deficit has only gone down a little, from 6.1% of GDP in 2022 to 4.8% in 2024. The rise in capital spending on infrastructure, especially roads and energy, led to the missed targets and put more pressure on the Government’s finances.
In response, the IMF and the Government have agreed on a set of actions to fix the situation. These actions include improving revenue collection and making sure spending stays within the agreed budget. The aim is to meet the necessary targets by June 2025, which will allow the IMF to release its financial support for the year.
Meeting these targets will also make it possible to get more help from the World Bank and the European Union, which could bring in more funding to help Sierra Leone keep its economy stable in the long run.
The Government has said it is committed to the programme and the reforms needed to keep progress going and improve the lives of Sierra Leoneans.
It’s high time we freed our economy from the shackles of imperialists through our leaders being selfless and less corrupt.
I certainly have a stronger conviction that we do not need IMF for growth and development to take place in mama SALONE.
Burkina Faso is a blue print for nations that want to make things happen. Let’s stop hocky Pocky . The West will never want to see us self reliance. So wise up our commanders in this great nation.
Improving on revenue mobilization by the government recommended by international monetary fund IMF inorder to meet the IMF targets to obtain loans from them it means increasing taxation, government borrows and reducing interest rate . Reduced interest rates will increase borrowing from private sectors ,consequently leads to huge circulation of money in the market. Aggregate Demand will increase by consumers because of increased in their purchasing power which will lead to inflation. Increasing taxation will lead to high cost of living as producers and sellers will increase the price of their products as producers spend too much money on production processes. The consumers bear the burden . Increasing government borrows equally increases government’s aggregate demand which may lead to reducing unemployment rate but negatively contribute to inflation. Therefore, government has to be wise before implementing IMF submissions