Monrovia – An official of the Liberian government recently claimed that the country’s economy is expected to grow by more than 3% this year. Mr. Isaac Doe, who is the deputy minister for Youth Development at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, made the assertion on the January 11, 2022, edition of the Spoon Talk.
Doe, who is a regular panelist on the popular talk show, claimed to have relied on the World Bank data, saying: “World Bank has estimated the growth of the economy this year to be more than 3% and in addition to that they are estimating that next year it will be about 4%”.
Although Deputy Minister Doe did not state a particular year but when LVL fact checked the claim, we found a World Bank article published in November 2021 titled Liberia: “Sustaining Prudent Microeconomic Policies and Expanding Fiscal Space which says real GDP growth was projected to grow by 3.9% in 2021.”
In the article, the World Bank projects that “growth is expected to rise up to an average of 5.2% between 2022-2025 – that is “if vaccines rollout will prevent a new general lockdown in 2021-2022 and Liberia continues to institute reforms in agriculture and energy”.
The World Bank also estimates that Liberia’s economy will “expand by an average of 4.9% in 2022-2023”, add that “Growth will be driven mainly by the mining sector and external demand. Structural reforms are expected to increase activity in mining, agriculture, and construction. Per capita GDP is expected to return to pre-COVID-19 levels by 2023.”
At the same time, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its October 2021 data mapper projects that Liberia will experience a growth of real GDP or Gross Domestic Product of 4.7% — this comes from a real GDP growth of3.6% in 2021.
Conclusion
Based on our research and information collected from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund it is established that both the IMF and the World Bank project that in 2022 Liberia’s real GDP growth will be more than 3%. This means, the claim by Deputy Minister Isaac Doe is correct.
| Claim | Verdict |
| “World Bank has estimated the growth of the economy this year to be more than 3% and in addition to that they are estimating that next year it will be about 4%”. | Correct |