Page 15 - Economic transformation

This inequality persists throughout the working life of Gambians, peaking among those

between 40 and 45 (See Figure 11 below).

Figure 11: Gambia – Gender differences in earnings throughout working life

Source: Calculations based on Gambia 2018 Labour Force Survey

To summarise the preceding sections; weak economic growth in the country has

been further compromised by (a) higher inflation, (b) a gradually weakening current

account (reflected when the GDP is converted to PPP equivalent), (c) an average

population growth rate almost comparable to the economy’s growth rate and (d) low

productivity attested by the economies biggest industry being a generally low

productivity, high labour industry. The next section briefly probes the causes of inflation

and a weakening current account before proposing policy intervention areas which the

UNCT may wish to consider when exploring future programmatic interventions.

Inflation

That Gambia experienced an increasing trend in the inflation rate from around

2012 to at least 2017 is not entirely surprising when other economic fundamentals are

considered. For example, this period coincided with the decline in the significance of the

15