The Budget Support Group (BSG), a combination of aid donors, has issued an assessment of Cape Verde’s economic and budgetary policies, Cape Verdean newspaper A Semana reported.
According to the media outlet, BSG recently concluded the second of its two annual visits to the African nation. In a statement, the group gave a positive evaluation on the country, highlighting the 1.8-percent growth of the Cape Verdean economy in 2014.
BSG acknowledged Cape Verde has seen a recovery of its public revenues in 2015, the newspaper reported. The group also noted there was progress in several fields including the management of public finances.
BSG noted the country’s public investment programme had slowed, adding that this was crucial to assuring the sustainability of the nation’s public debt.
But BSG also warned that economic activities in the country had to be improved. It also added that deflation and high unemployment characterised economies underperforming relative to their potential.
“It will be important to grow more rapidly, recovering from the previous stagnation period, as well as to continue to support poverty reduction [efforts],” BSG said in the statement quoted by the newspaper.
BSG’s members include the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the European Union (EU), Portugal, Luxembourg and Spain. This was the latter’s last mission in the group, due to changes in Spain’s co-operation strategy, the newspaper said.