Mr. Jeng;
Well, the culprit of this spiral is lack of sound economic policy at a time
when collecitve reasoning should be a priority adopted by the government. You
will note that those entrusted to govern have lost touch with the basic
principle of economics and sound fiscal policies.
Continuous incurrences of long-term debt for the so-called development
projects have sunk the dalasi to dangerous threshold. As the country incurs
debt, a dangerous gap exists in our import/export categories. This in effect,
has serious consequences on the Dalasi.
To further elaborate, the government has failed. It has failed, and thus,
must redefine its failed policies. Our responsibility in collective reasoning
is to continue our debates professionally and objectively. Take a look at the
ill-conceived notion of increasing ministerial departments to twenty. This to
me will further slide the Dalasi.
The Gambian Dalasi will continue to slide as long as Jammeh continues with his
style of governing. We must elaborate that quantitative approaches to failed
development projects cannot be qualitatively analyzed with fiscal
responsibility.
Naphiyo,
Comrade ML Jassey-Conteh
Greensboro, NC/Kombo East Constituency
On Mon, 12 Aug 2002 09:33:18 -0400 Beran jeng <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Observer Editorial
>
> August 9, 2002
>
> Saving the Dalasi
> The current downwards pressure on the Dalasi is
> indeed a cause for concern
> to all Gambians. Our currency is depreciating
> rapidly against all the
> international currencies, moreso the CFA and
> the Pound Sterling. This has
> led to the expected rise in prices of basic
> goods such as soap, sugar and
> luxuries.
> The depreciation of the dalasi is due mainly to
> the fact that Gambia imports
> far more than it exports. Our economy is so
> import oriented that even salt,
> matches, and ordinary foodstuff are brought
> from abroad. Such importation
> puts a severe strain on our foreign exchange
> reserve and affect the forex
> markets negatively. Secondly, it was reported
> last week in the Gambia Daily
> that speculators believed to be from Senegal
> bring in a lot of Euros, which
> they change to dalasis and then to the CFA
> Franc and harvest hefty profits.
> It is said that for every 1000 euros brought
> into the country by these
> undesirable speculators, they realise a profit
> of D9,000.00.
> This is daylight robbery.
> The currency speculators are strangling our
> dalasi and sabotaging our
> economy.
> The free fall of the dalasi in the past few
> months is so alarming that
> something as sinister as the work of
> speculators must be in the works.
> We recognise the tremendous effort of the
> Central Bank to monitor and
> regularise the forex market by requiring the
> street corner money changers to
> register and set up shop.
> However, such effort will not bear fruit in the
> face of money speculators.
> No stone should remain unturned in order to
> bring back the glory and lustre
> of our dear Dalasi. All the efforts of
> government to attract more investors,
> join the WAMU and fight poverty will come to
> nought if the dalasi goes
> deeper down the pit of depreciation and
> engender hyper-inflation.
> Of course, we must add that the best buoy for
> the dalasi will be an
> increased export base, especially in fisheries,
> peanuts and also increased
> tourist arrivals. If Gambians really love their
> dalasi, they should strive
> to need less dollars to import luxuries and
> look for local substitutes.
> We suggest that our investors set up small
> import substitution industries
> such that we will be able to save our foreign
> exchange for more pressing
> needs like medicine.
> Government can also help by hastening the
> production (directly or in
> conjunction with the private sector) of staple
> food items such as rice,
> potatoes, poultry and even edible oil, all of
> which are partially or wholly
> currently being imported, but which can
> actually be cultivated and or
> produced
>
>
>
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