The Executive Governor of the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL), J. Aloysius Tarlue, Jr., has called for strong coordination among African fiscal and monetary authorities to promote macroeconomic stability on the continent. Governor Tarlue made the call at the 45th annual meeting of the Association of African Central Banks (AACB), held in Livingstone, Zambia from July 31 to August 4, 2023.
The Executive Governor, who served as one of the panelists at the symposium organized by the association, pointed out that African economies have been persistently faced with shocks, which largely originated from external sources. “These shocks include external global economic and financial developments, geopolitical conflicts and natural disasters, caused by climate change,” Executive Governor Tarlue pointed out. He emphasized Liberia’s dual-currency monetary regime, and the coordination between the Central Bank of Liberia and the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP).
Other speakers and panelists at the symposium included governors from AACB member central banks: Abebe A. Selassie, Director, African Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF); and His Excellency, Albert M. Muchanga, Commissioner for Economic Development, Trade, Industry and Mining of the African Union Commission.
The symposium was held under the theme, “Recurrence of Shocks and Macroeconomic Implications for African Economies: Challenges and Prospects for Central Banks”. It cautioned African central banks against defending their domestic currencies, but rather focus on their medium-term inflationary objective of achieving price and financial stability, and support economic growth. It also recommended the need for a continental strategy to engage international creditors under the African Union (AU) framework and highlighted the significant milestones achieved under the Pan African Payments and Settlement Systems (PAPSS) project, which seeks to promote continental trade through real-time payments and settlements and remove exchange rate risks to member countries.
