Food Prices Soaring Despite Budget Support

Prices of food commodities are still shooting through the roof despite the millions of dollars the World Bank and IMF pumped into the country in the recent past.

When we read about the mouth-watering millions of dollars given to the Gambia government to deal with the consequences of the Ukraine war and the after-effects of Covid-19 on the country’s economy, we’d thought the prices of essential commodities were never going to put strains on household budgets.

But we were wrong!

At the time of writing this editorial, the prices of bags of onions and rice, for example, were seriously threatening to escape the grasp of the man in the street.

Fish prices have also been soaring and so were prices of other food commodities.

We pause here to ask: When will the budget support from the IMF and other donor agencies start translating into any tangible benefit for the population.