Cameroon remains calm despite drop in oil barrel prices

Despite the revenue loss, forecasts prevent Cameroon from feeling the hard fall. "We took the usual precautions compared with the prices in order not to put the public services in a difficult situation than those announced by the revenue management.

"In general, the price of a barrel taken into account is less than ten dollars (about 5000 F) compared to what the international monetary Fund (IMF) provided", said Lazare Bela, technical adviser to the Ministry of finance. The 2015 budget projections are in this regard "prudent as usual", due to the volatility of the dollar.

From $110 (about 55,000 F) in July, the price of a barrel has in fact, fallen to 83 dollars (43.575 F). Yesterday, the dollar was worth 525 F, after reaching 82 dollars (41,000 F), the lowest price recorded for four years.

Whatever it is, reassured Mr. Bela, the decline in the price of the barrel regularly corresponds to an (price) appreciation of the CFA franc against the dollar. So the price of a barrel, locally denominated CFA franc, will fall if it had been included in dollar, for example.

On the other hand, more affordable oil also promotes the relief of fuel subsidies. Already reduced last June, these contributions were saved by the public coffers on the invoice of one litre of super, diesel, kerosene or gas especially in the equipment or social spending as per statement of the Ministry of finance.

Cameroon, exporter of crude oil, will nonetheless lose significant revenue despite the steady increase in production.

In 2012, the Cameroonian basement provided approximately 22,38 million barrels of oil, against 21.61 million barrels in 2011. Last year, 24.31 million barrels were extracted, an increase of 8.6%. For 2014, the forecast by the national hydrocarbons Corporation in May confirmed this upward trend.