The Central Bank of Liberia (CBL’s) Governor, J. Aloysius Tarlue, Jr., says Liberia has one of the lowest inflation rates in West Africa largely on account of their effective monetary policy stance coupled with prudent fiscal management by the government.
He said under his leadership the bank has made significant improvement in reducing inflation rate from as high from 30 percent by the end of 2019 to as low as 6.9 percent average inflation rate.
Tarlue made these comments when he inducted into office the newly elected officials of the Publishers Association of Liberia (PAL) recently in Monrovia.
He stated among many things that in addition to this, they have achieved broad stability of the exchange rate of the Liberian dollars for a long period as compared to prior administration when the exchange rate was very much volatile and uncertain.
“We have ensured that the banking system, and the financial system in general remain strong, viable and inclusive. In this regard, we have strengthened our regulatory and supervisory oversight through enhanced supervisory strategy and more robust monitoring of the financial system,” he noted.
Tarlue pointed out that a key milestone in this effort is the drafting of new banking act which is currently at the National Legislature, reflecting a significant amendment to the new financial institutions act of 1999.
He believed that the new act seeks to strengthen the resolution regime and supervisory roles of the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) stressing that they are presently implementing a currency reform on a scale never experienced by the Bank before.
For the first time in over 20 years, Tarlue continued: “We are printing and minting a new family of banknotes and coins in the tune of L$48.734 billion with the re-introduction of new coins after almost 30 years and the introduction of L$1,000 banknotes for the first time.”
He said it is worth noting that the CBL is carrying out such a transparent currency procurement process with the involvement of our external partners (International Monetary Fund and United States Agency for International Development through Kroll), adding, “The procurement process of the new currency was acclaimed by the United States Embassy, noting that other agencies of government could emulate.”
Notwithstanding, he advanced further the effort to ensure that they have adequate banknotes and coins to serve the needs of the economy in the medium-term and that they are also promoting digitization of the financial services and transactions as part of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy.
“We continue to see increases in mobile money transactions and other electronic payments. We are making strides in modernizing our national payments infrastructure. On this note, we have secured up to US$7.0 million to finance the upgrading of our national electronic payments switch,” Tarlue disclosed.
He pointed out further that this will significantly help in promoting interoperability among the different players in the payment-system space, promote regional trade through the Pan-African Payment System infrastructure and promote effective and transparent public financial management through improved revenue collection and payments for expenditures.
Tarlue noted that there are a lot of other reforms taking place at the bank, which time cannot permit him to mention here.
