Congo's economy to grow 6.8% amid reforms, IMF says
2011-02-12 09:08:34 【Print】
The economy of Democratic Republic of Congo will expand 6.8 percent this year amid high commodity prices and government reforms, according to the International Monetary Fund.
“The country’s growth and inflation projections for 2011 are realistic,” Samir Jahjah, the IMF country representative for Congo told reporters in the capital, Kinshasa, today. “The government is remaining within its resources.”
Higher copper and cobalt prices are helping to strengthen the economy after 6.1 percent growth in 2010, he said. Inflation will remain at about 9.9 percent, unchanged from 2010, Jahjah said. Congo has about 4 percent of the world’s copper and a third of its cobalt resources.
The IMF released $77 million to the central African nation as part of a three year, $541 million loan program, according to a statement published on the Washington-based lender’s website yesterday. The funding comes amid improvement in the country’s macroeconomic performance, structural reforms to the economy, and fiscal discipline, the institution said.
Increased inflation at the beginning of 2011 prompted Congo’s central bank to sell $50 million of foreign exchange and raise its benchmark interest rate to 29.5 percent. The interventions are stabilizing inflation and limiting fluctuations in the exchange rate that affect the country’s poorest who use the local franc currency instead of dollars, Jahjah said.
Congo ranked second-to-last in the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Index of 169 nations last year. Copper rose 1.90 cents to $4.5430 a pound by 1:46 p.m. in New York. Prices for the metal have risen 36 percent in the past six months.
“The country’s growth and inflation projections for 2011 are realistic,” Samir Jahjah, the IMF country representative for Congo told reporters in the capital, Kinshasa, today. “The government is remaining within its resources.”
Higher copper and cobalt prices are helping to strengthen the economy after 6.1 percent growth in 2010, he said. Inflation will remain at about 9.9 percent, unchanged from 2010, Jahjah said. Congo has about 4 percent of the world’s copper and a third of its cobalt resources.
The IMF released $77 million to the central African nation as part of a three year, $541 million loan program, according to a statement published on the Washington-based lender’s website yesterday. The funding comes amid improvement in the country’s macroeconomic performance, structural reforms to the economy, and fiscal discipline, the institution said.
Increased inflation at the beginning of 2011 prompted Congo’s central bank to sell $50 million of foreign exchange and raise its benchmark interest rate to 29.5 percent. The interventions are stabilizing inflation and limiting fluctuations in the exchange rate that affect the country’s poorest who use the local franc currency instead of dollars, Jahjah said.
Congo ranked second-to-last in the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Index of 169 nations last year. Copper rose 1.90 cents to $4.5430 a pound by 1:46 p.m. in New York. Prices for the metal have risen 36 percent in the past six months.
