IMF Recommends Accelerated Investment in Cameroon

A joint team of staff of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank who have been in Cameroon to assess the country's 2013 economic performance and prospects for 2014 say government needs to accelerate investment so as to attain its 2035 economic emergence.

"Cameroon has huge investment needs and we fully support the major projects that are being implemented but we need to accelerate the implementation of the projects and we also need to be careful that the general terms and conditions of the debts that the State is contracting to finance the projects remain well thought out and sustainable," Mario de Zamaroczy said.

Speaking to the press yesterday November 25 after a restitution session with the Minister of Finance, Alamine Ousmane Mey and his close collaborators, the IMF/World Bank team leader, Mario de Zamaroczy, said the country's growth is robust.

"We estimate that growth will be over 4.5 per cent in 2013 and inflation remains subdued well below the convergence criterion of the region. The prospects for 2014 are equally promising. We see growth in the same tune of about 4.5 to 5 per cent and we also believe inflation will remain low," he said.

However, there are challenges that authorities need to surmount to keep the economy healthy. "The first one is to increase and accelerate growth. The robust growth performance is not sufficient to put the country on the path of economic emergence that authorities themselves have said they want to attain in 2035. We need higher growth to see the results faster and to reduce poverty," he observed.

The team leader also expressed hopes that with strategies put in place, the page would be turned at the year's end on the not-so-good revenue situation of the country which at the beginning of the year fell below expectations. At the expenditure side, Mario de Zamaroczy noted that generalised subsidies to fuel prices are not an optimum way to use scarce resources, praying the State to think about possible reforms in that area.