Government says it has boosted its revenue intake to US$695.7 million during fiscal year 2020/21 which is mainly from domestic sources.
Finance and Development Planning Deputy Minister for Fiscal Affairs, Samora Wolokollie made the disclosure yesterday at the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism (MICAT) press briefing.
He said of the amount, government expenditure has been US$71 million and that is due to the prudent fiscal management and sound economy management being carried out at the Finance and Development Planning Ministry.
He said the economy is projected to rebound at 3.61 percent in 2021 following two consecutive years of slump in economic activities with recovery expected to be driven by increased business optimism by the rise in the global prices of the country’s key export commodities (rubber and iron ore) and increase in its capital spending.
Wolokollie explained that the global economic recovery is projected to have positive spillovers on the Liberian economy through increased cross border trade and the resumption in activities in the service sectors especially the tourism and hospitality industries.
For the quarter under review, he added that inflation averaged at 9.96 percent at end-March 2021 down from 21.72 percent recorded during the same period in 2020.
“The slump in inflationary pressures can be attributable to the tight monetary policy stance, lower aggregate demand as well as the decline in global oil price during said period,” he noted.
Wolokollie stated that the country’s gross official reserves at the Central Bank of Liberia at the end of March 2021 stood at US$ 299.29 million from US$ 253.75 million recorded at end of March in 2020.
He expressed thanks to the Liberia authority strategies to increase reverses at the Central Bank of Liberia by 17.93% during this span of time with import cover remain unceasing despite this enormous effort during the period at 2.4 percent.
“World Bank report on Liberia in May 2021 estimated month of import at 2.9 percent of GDP up from 2.6 percent of GDP reported in 2020 and the exchange rate between the Liberian dollar and the United States dollar at end-March 2021 on average, depreciated by 7.4 percent to L$173.47/US$1.00 from L$161.5/US$1.00 recorded at end-December 2020,” Wolokollie noted.
Parallel to the corresponding quarter in 2020, he continued: “That the domestic currency appreciated by 14.1 percent on average from L$197.83/US$1.00. For the administration of the affairs of the state over the course of July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, a budget of US$594.9 million was approved and passed into law by the National Legislature.”
This represents an increase of 13.0 percent compared to the approved budget for the previous fiscal year (FY2019/20) and also an increase of 14.5 percent compared to the recast budget for FY2019/20.
Of the approved budget, Wolokollie advanced forward that the core revenue (domestic revenue and grants) amount to US$468.9 million representing 78.82 percent of the approved resource envelope while financing from other sources account for US$126.0 million representing 21.18 percent.
On the expenditure front, the deputy minister said the approved budget for FY2020/21, recurrent expenditure amounts to US$569.9 million representing 95.80 percent of the approved budget while capital expenditure accounts for US$25.00 million representing 4.20 percent.
Of the recurrent spending, Wolokollie told the media that compensation of employees amounts to US$291.8 million, expenditure for the use of goods and services amounts to 143.1 million, interest expenditures amount to US$ 79.6 million and expenditure for the provision of grants amounts to US$52.8 million.
Among other things the approved resource envelope and expenditure for the provision of social benefits amount to US$2.7 million.
About the total revenue collected at the end of the third quarter of FY2020/21 amounts to US$387.5 million representing 65.2 percent of the approved resource envelope, and sourced entirely from core revenue sources.
Thus, it accounts for 84.1 percent of the budgeted core revenue and the amount realized, represents an increase of 18.4 percent compared to the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year.
Total allotments issued at the end of the third quarter for fiscal year FY2020/21 amounted to US$507.9 million of the approved budget as compared to the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year (FY2019/20) amount of US$387.2 million.
Of the allotted amount, US$464.9 million was committed to spending entities of the approved budget thus commitment compared to the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year represents an increment of 34.1 percent.
The total projected aid from external sources for FY2020/21 amounts to US$330.9 million of which grants account for US$258.2 million while loans account for US$72.8 million.
Of that total aid disbursed at the end of the second quarter in FY2020/21 in the form of both grants and loan, amounts to US$201.8 million, of which grants account for US$110.2 million of the amount disbursed while loans account for US$91.6 million.
About public debt stock amounted to US$1,639.6 million; of which the domestic debt stock accounts for US$675.39 million while external debt stock accounts for US$964.22 million at the end of March 2021.
Thus, compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year, the debt stock shows an increase of 9.2 percent as the total debt service amounted to US$23.2 million at end of March 2021.
Of the total debt service, domestic debt service amounted to US$18.6 million while interest repayment accounts for 46.4 percent.