Liberia Weah takes action to fight against inflation, poverty

MONROVIA – Liberian President George Weah announced Monday that he would take action to combat rampant inflation and poverty, including by injecting $ 25 million into the foreign exchange market and by investing more in the formal banking system. "I am fully aware of the negative impact of the lowering of the exchange rate on the economic well-being of the Liberian people, and the serious difficulties that it is beginning to cause," Weah said in a speech to the nation.

"We believe that a more vigorous application of monetary policy should make it possible to solve the problem," and in particular to give the central bank more powerful powers to regulate money changers and banks, he says. This would help pay off excess Liberian dollars, adding that 90% of the local cash in circulation was held outside the formal banking system, where there was no supervision.

A former world football player of the year, Weah t He opened an office in early 2018 on the promise to eradicate corruption and put an end to the economic misery of millions of Liberians.

Between 1989 and 2003, civil wars in this small country of West Africa killed hundreds of thousands of people. As its economy rebounded, it was hit by falling prices for its major exports, iron ore and rubber, and an Ebola outbreak between 2014 and 2016.

But the collapse of the currency has particularly affected Liberians. Weah said the Liberian dollar had dropped 25 percent in 2017 and 25 percent since January, partly because of the end of the UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia in March, which had reduced currencies.

"The negative impact on real estate and the inflows into the US dollar economy spent by former peacekeepers are significant," he said. In the longer term, he said that Liberia is ready to "take major action to ensure … that it becomes more competitive in terms of domestic production", details of which will be released shortly.