(Business in Cameroon) - According to a report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the economic situation in Chad, this country in recession (growth rate of -3% in 2016 according to President Déby) due to the drop in international prices for crude oil received from Cameroon, in 2016, a bilateral loan worth a total of FCfa 30 billion. This revelation by the IMF confirms the comments of the Chadian Head of State, Idriss Déby, who, addressing his government and the management of this party in an audio archive recorded on 26 December last year, confessed having “begged” for financial resources from various “partners” of his country.

This help search, President Déby specified in the above-mentioned document, was meant to “pay the salaries” of civil servants, whose monthly payroll, he recalled, moved from FCfa 2 billion in 2002, to approximately FCfa 50 billion nowadays.

The financial help provided by the State of Cameroon to Chad, first country to send troops to fight against Boko Haram alongside the Cameroonian army, thus added up to the decisions taken by the Central Bank of CEMAC States last year, to help the countries in this community in reducing the public deficits incurred by the drop in oil revenues.

With regards to Chad, who only got FCfa 25 billion (against FCfa 400 to 700 billion in the past) in oil revenues as at 26 December 2016, according to Idriss Déby, the BEAC decided between March and April 2016, to increase the upper limit for the refinancing of Chadian commercial banks.

This measure was in addition to the decision taken by this issuing institution to halve the volume of minimum reserves imposed to banks operating in the CEMAC zone, to boost their liquidity and therefore increase their capacity to finance the sub-regional economies.

Brice R. Mbodiam