Revenue collection improved in the first half of 2018, but declined somewhat in the third quarter, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a statement released Oct. 31.
According to Ivohasina Razafimahefa, the head of a team from the institution who stayed in Lome, this decline is mainly due to a decline in port traffic (no figure is advanced by the IMF, Ed). The country’s somewhat delicate socio-political situation in the second quarter of 2017 did not favor good business continuity at the Port of Lome, he argued.
In the first half of 2018, the analysis of the determinants of the country’s fiscal policy reveals that government revenues, including donations and loans, amount to CFAF 423.3 billion, representing a realization rate of about 32.3%. compared to the annual forecast (1,308 billion).
Introducing in May the draft law correcting the 2018 budget, the Minister of Finance, Sani Yaya, had judged the decline (1%) of its forecasts by the evolution of the socio-economic and financial, characterized by the crisis socio-political enamelled of violence that has negatively affected economic activity since the second half of 2017, thus reducing the level of mobilization of tax and customs revenues.
