Minister of Finance Doudou Fwamba Likunde Li-botayi led the meeting of the Political Troika on Tuesday, September 17, 2024. In this working session, which was attended by the Deputy Minister of the Budget, the Deputy Minister of Finance and the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Doudou Fwamba gave clear guidelines to stabilize the macroeconomic framework for the benefit of the stability of the exchange rate observed on the market over the past five weeks.
DRC: Government wants to put more investments in productive sectors to maintain exchange rate stability (Troika)
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"Only investment can create wealth that will in turn enable us to sustainably manage the inflation situation and control the exchange rate. We must invest in the productive sectors," explained Félicien Mulenda, Coordinator of the Technical Committee for Monitoring and Evaluation of Reforms (CTR).
This orientation of the national treasurer is included in the set of "long-term structural solutions which can anchor stability" and thus go beyond the simple economic to fight against the depreciation of the national currency and its unfortunate socio-economic consequences.
"As long as we continue to depend infinitely in large part on imports, this movement, this trend towards the deterioration of our national currency will continue especially since we are a dollarized economy. The guidelines have been given. It is in this perspective that the Ministers of Finance and Budget are working to mobilize internal and external resources," he added.
It should be noted that during this meeting, the political Troika "noted that stability is being consolidated" and that the Democratic Republic of Congo "is in the fifth consecutive week that inflation is decelerating". This prompted the Minister of Finance to consider that it is necessary to go beyond the cyclical to think about the structural.
"Today, the minister considered that beyond the cyclical so that we fight at the same time to stabilize the framework, the inflation rate, the exchange rate, we must go beyond and think about the structural. That is to say, find long-term structural solutions that can anchor stability. Long-term solutions involve diversifying the economy. We must increase supply, national production so that there is an impact on the stability of the currency. For that, we must invest: in agriculture, transport, rural development. We must invest in the productive sectors."
It should also be noted that the recent negotiations initiated between the Congolese Government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were also discussed.
"We have just reviewed the aide-mémoire of this mission which noted the progress made in terms of public finance management and even in terms of our domestic wealth. The last mission noted that the growth rate, which was nevertheless estimated at 4.7%, is estimated, to date, at 6% on the basis of achievements at the end of June. By the end of the year, we can expect a much higher growth rate than what was initially estimated. This simply means that there is a dynamism that has been established in the country," rejoiced Félicien Mulenda.
The Democratic Republic of Congo plans to mobilize 2.5 billion US dollars in the programs under negotiation with the IMF, revealed the CTR Coordinator at the end of this meeting.
"We are working with the IMF. We estimate that we can mobilize up to $2.5 billion, including $1.5 billion for the Extended Credit Facility and $1 billion for the Extended Resilience and Sustainability Facility. Beyond that, we are working for a budget support of $1 billion from the World Bank for 2024-2026."
A situation which demonstrates the efforts made by the authorities to both mobilise resources, increase investment and create wealth.
