Overview
Congo, as most of oil producers, is being hit by two shocks—the potential spread of COVID-19 and the sharp decline in oil prices. The first confirmed COVID-19 case was reported on March 15, 2020. As of end-May 2021, there were over 11845 cumulative cases, with a fatality rate of about 1.4 percent, and 74882 doses of the COVID vaccine have been administered. The Ministry of Health has prepared a national contingency plan in collaboration with WHO and other international partners. In the meantime, the authorities started to adopt containment measures, including social distancing, travel bans on visitors from high-risk countries and quarantine for nationals/expatriates returning from those countries, screening at ports of entry, and school closures. During 2020, a lock-down was established in the country from April 1 to mid-May, and extended through end July but with a reduced time interval of 10PM to 5AM. In late July, in response to the surge in cases, the authorities have increased the time interval for the lockdown to 8PM-5AM in the two major cities of Brazzaville and Pointe Noir. Since September 2020, the curfew period is from 11PM to5AM from Monday to Friday and from 8PM to 5AM on weekends.
Reopening of the economy. On May 18, 2020, the lockdown was eased with opening up of public transportation, primary schools final year class and graduation class. As of late June 2020, restaurants, hotels, and most private services have opened in the two main cities, while the rest of the country had opened up completely previously. Since May 30, 2020, a large scale screening for teachers and administrative staff has been occurring. The flight space reopened fully as of August 24, 2020 with the requirement that each arrival is equipped with a negative COVID-19 test result dating from at most 3 days. The official school opening date on campus was to October 12, 2020 but since early December a number of private schools have returned to online schooling. As of early February, 2021, schools have returned to face-to-face learning.
Official Resources
No data
COVID-19 Restrictions
Movement Restrictions:
- Is a curfew in place? Yes
- On Monday through Friday from 23:00 until 05:00 in Brazzaville and Pointe Noire.
- On Saturday and Sunday and holidays from 20:00 until 5:00 in Brazzaville and Pointe Noire.
- The curfew is lifted for the rest of the country.
- Law enforcement units may fine or arrest people who are found non-compliant.
Transportation Options:
- Are commercial flights operating? Yes
- Is public transportation operating? Yes
- Masks are still required in public and social distancing and hygiene requirements continue to be implemented.
Fines for Non-Compliance:
- Law enforcement units may fine or arrest people who are found non-compliant.
Economic Measures
Key Policy Responses as of September 24, 2020
FISCAL
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The overall cost of the response plan to the COVID 19 epidemic has been estimated at US$170 million (100 billion XAF), equivalent to 1.6 percent of 2020 GDP, to date the government has made available to the Ministry of Health the amount of US$1.4 million. The EU, WFP, France are getting together to provide support for the poorest segments of the population with combined support amounting to about 3 billion XAF as of now.
The government has adopted some measures to ease tax and duty payments for private enterprises. In particular, more time has been given to companies to pay their taxes and tax assessments on site have been abandoned. The import duty directorate is also strongly encouraging electronic payment of dues and allowing more electronic documents to be accepted at the port. Corporate income tax has been reduced to 28 percent from 30 percent and the turnover tax has been reduced to 5 percent from 7 percent for small businesses with turnover below 100 million XAF.
MONETARY AND MACRO-FINANCIAL
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On March 27, 2020, BEAC announced a set of monetary easing measures including a decrease of the policy rate by 25 bps to 3.25 percent, a decrease of the Marginal Lending Facility rate by 100 bps to 5 percent, a suspension of absorption operations, an increase of liquidity provision from FCFA 240 to 500 billion, and a widening of the range of private instruments accepted as collateral in monetary operations. The MPC also supported BEAC’s management’s intent to propose to reduce haircuts applicable to private instruments accepted as collateral for refinancing operations, and to postpone by one-year principal repayment of consolidated central bank’s credits to member states, but these possible additional measures are not effective yet. On March 25, 2020, the COBAC informed banks that they can use their capital conservation buffers of 2.5% to absorb pandemic-related losses but requested banks to adopt a restrictive policy with regard to dividend distribution. Discussions are taking place at the country level on whether private companies can have access to the 100 billion XAF fund set up by the President and on simplifying access to refinancing instruments. A guarantee scheme has been set up to help private companies service their banking debts, but no details have been provided on the amounts or conditions.
EXCHANGE RATE AND BALANCE OF PAYMENTS
Civic Freedom Tracker
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