Economy : From Resilience To Recovery

The Civil Cabinet of the Presidency of the Republic in the 65th issue of its news magazine, “Le Temps des Opportunités” has published special pages with Cameroon’s economy featuring prominently. Focus here is on the context and efforts made by government under the able leadership of President Paul Biya to consolidate economic resilience and engage in recovery.
The country’s economy in 2020 faced major security, health and economic challenges. Despite the security challenges in the North West, South West and Far North Regions, 2020 started with a positive macroeconomic outlook with growth estimated at 4 per cent. Then came the Coronavirus pandemic in early 2020 with disastrous economic consequences. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) project the Cameroonian economy to decline by -3.5 per cent compared with growth initially estimated at 3.8 per cent. There was also a fall in import and exports as all foreign trade activity having contracted by 16 per cent in the first half of 2020. In the productive system, estimates by the Cameroon Employers’ Association (GICAM) showed that in the second quarter of 2020 the shock affected 96.6 per cent of units. 
Resilience At Work
Cameroon has cushioned the health and economic shocks through the bold and proactive measures prescribed by President Paul Biya through the Government’s COVID-19 Response Strategy. The country’s economy suffered a decline of only -2.6 per cent in real terms contrary to the estimates projected by the IMF. The decline rate, according to the publication, is the best performance in Sub-Saharan Africa. Inflation on its part has been contained at 2.4 per cent below the sub-regional convergence threshold of 3 per cent. In the face of the pandemic, Cameroon has remained credible among investors. The implementation of structuring and community projects have not been impeded, reconstruction of crisis-affected North West and South West Regions have continued and preparatory works  intensified for the organisation of  the African Nations Championship (CHAN) 2021 and the Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) 2022.
Path To Recovery
President Paul Biya in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic prescribed a series of forward-looking measures grouped under budgetary provisions, favour of enterprises and social sectors. He set up the Special National Solidarity Fund to deal with the shocks of the pandemic. The total amount of FCFA 180...