The Republic of Equatorial Guinea National Economic and Financial Council (CNEF), a body created by the UMAC Ministerial Committee on 12th December 2019, through Regulation 03/2019/CEMAC/UMAC/CM, replacing the National Monetary and Finance Committee and the National Committee of Member States, met for a second time, in an ordinary session, via video conference, on Monday 20th July, under the presidency of the Minister for Finance, the Economy and Planning, and with the participation of the Governor of BEAC, Abbas Mahamat Tollo, the Director of BEAC for Equatorial Guinea, Genoveva Andeme Obiang, also the General Secretary of the National Economic and Financial Council, and reported on points on the agenda.

Once the agenda had been approved by the committee, the National Economic and Financial Management approved minutes from the meeting of 18th May, and then the National Economic and Financial Committee reviewed recommendations before analysing the situation regarding international, national, economic, monetary and financial data to 31st may, and also the short and medium-term forecasts.

In accordance with estimations from the International Monetary Fund, global economic growth forecast initially at -3.0% for 2020 is expected to fall to -4.9%, before rising to 5.4% in 2021.

In the CEMAC zone, the negative effects of Covid-19, combined with the reduction in the core of the main products exported by member countries, would halt activities in productive areas. The CEMAC economy would go into recession in 2020.

The CEMAC economy would be -5.4 in 2020, against 2.0% in 2019, and would move to 3.5% in 2021.

The National Monetary and Finance Committee analysed the impact of Covid-19 and the CEMAC petroleum regulations in Equatorial Guinea, with respect to the management of public finances, the execution of the 2020 budget, resulting in a budget deficit of 31,500 million FCFA in the same period as the previous year, regarding the report from the Equatorial Guinea Professional Association of Credit (APEC).

The committee asked about the problem of internal debt of construction companies, the management of transfers and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on banking activities. Then the committee asked about the work related to the restructuring of public companies and the evolution of the financial programme with the International Monetary Fund.

Source: Official Web Page of the Government