Overview
The first cases were reported on March 25, 2020. A state of emergency was declared on March 28, followed by a state of calamity declared on September 9, and a state of health alert declared on December 10. In response to signs of a second wave, a state of calamity was reestablished by presidential decree on January 23, 2021. Except for the reopening of schools, containment measures remain broadly the same: borders remain open subject to sanitary inspections; all travelers are obliged to present a negative PCR test obtained no more than 72 hours before travelling; social gatherings, public meetings, discos and bars, gyms and cultural events are prohibited; restaurants can only operate on take-away mode. The country is covered by COVAX. The first 12,000 doses of vaccines (AstraZeneca) arrived on March 22 provided by a private donor. The country is also expecting to receive 120,000 AstraZeneca doses by the end of May from the COVAX facility (28,800 already delivered) and has received 10,000 doses from Senegal. According to COVAX schedule, the aim is to protect about 400,000 people (at least 20% of the population) by the end of the year. Guinea-Bissau was amongst the 28 beneficiary countries of the IMF debt service relief through the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT), approved on April 13, October 2, 2020, and April 1, 2021. It requested to join the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) in December 2020. A request for a Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) arrangement of SDR 14.2 million (50 percent of quota) was approved by the Board on January 25, 2021. A staff-monitored program is under discussion to build a sound track record toward a possible Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement possibly in the first quarter of 2022.
Official Resources
No data
COVID-19 Restrictions
Movement Restrictions
- Is a curfew in place? No
- Are there restrictions on intercity or interstate travel? No
Transportation Options
- Are commercial flights operating? Yes.
- Is public transportation operating? Yes.
- Public transportation restrictions are in place, such mask wearing and opening windows, and a taxi passenger limit of three passengers.
Fines for Non-Compliance
- Fines range from 50,000 to 2,000,000 CFA for non-compliance of regulations in the decree.
Economic Measures
Key Policy Responses as of June 3, 2021
FISCAL
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To mitigate the immediate impact of the pandemic the government made emergency and support allocations of: (i) CFAF 4.7 billion (0.6 percent of GDP) to provide medicine, food, and medical equipment; and (ii) CFAF 1.2 billion (0.2 percent of GDP) for transfers to vulnerable. The government has provided direct support to the agricultural campaign for CFAF 790 million. It has used the BCEAO special refinancing window for "Covid-19 T-Bills" issued by the State for an amount of about US$27 million (CFAF 15 billion or 1.8 percent of GDP) for on-lending by domestic commercial banks to the cashew nut sector. The authorities have been seeking international financial support to complement its assistance program.
MONETARY AND MACRO-FINANCIAL
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The regional central bank (BCEAO) for the West-African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) has taken steps to better satisfy banks’ demand for liquidity and mitigate the negative impact of the pandemic on economic activity. In April 2020, the BCEAO adopted a full allotment strategy at a fixed rate of 2.5 percent (the minimum monetary policy rate) thereby allowing banks to satisfy their liquidity needs fully at a rate about 25 basis points lower than before the crisis. In June 2020, the Monetary Policy Committee cut by 50 basis points the ceiling and the floor of the monetary policy corridor, to 4 and 2 percent respectively. The BCEAO also: (i) extended the collateral framework to access central bank refinancing to include bank loans to prequalified 1,700 private companies; (ii) set-up a framework inviting banks and microfinance institutions to accommodate demands from solvent customers with Covid19-related repayment difficulties to postpone for a 3 month renewable period up to end-2020 debt service falling due, without the need to classify such postponed claims as non-performing; and (iii) introduced measures to promote the use of electronic payments. In addition, the BCEAO launched in April 2020 a special 3-month refinancing window at a fixed rate of 2.5 percent for limited amounts of 3-month "Covid-19 T-Bills" to be issued by each WAEMU sovereign to help meet immediate funding needs related to the current pandemic. The amount of such special T-Bills initially issued by Guinea-Bissau was equivalent to1.9percent of GDP, with some rollover possibility through such special T-Bills benefitting from a refinancing rate equivalent to the prevailing monetary policy rate but to be all paid back by end-2020.The BCEAO has launched in February 2021 a special 6-month refinancing window at the floor of the interest rate corridor to help WAEMU governments meet Covid recovery funding needs. Through this special window banks shall be able to refinance all bonds with maturity of 3 years or more governments currently plan to issue on the regional financial market in 2021. The amount of bonds eligible to the new refinancing window for Guinea-Bissau is equivalent to 6.9 percent of projected 2021 GDP. The new refinancing window is expected to remain in place for the term of the eligible bonds issued in 2021. Finally, WAEMU authorities have extended by one year the five-year period initiated in 2018 for the transition to Basle II/III bank prudential requirements. In particular, the regulatory capital adequacy ratio will remain unchanged at end-2020 from its 2019 level of 9.5 percent, before gradually increasing to 11.5 percent by 2023 instead of 2022 initially planned. In addition, in June 2020, the West African Development Bank (BOAD) decided to create a CFAF 100 billion window for extending 5 to 7 year refinancing of banks’s credit to SMEs in the 8 WAEMU member countries.In December 2020, the BCEAO encouraged WAEMU banks to refrain from distributing dividends with a view to strengthening their capital buffers in anticipation of the impact of the crisis on asset quality.
Civic Freedom Tracker
STATE OF EMERGENCY
The government has declared a nationwide "state of emergency" and introduced restrictive measures to prevent further spread of the virus, including the closure of all land and sea borders and commercial air links. Public transport has also been suspended, while only essential shops remain open, including food and medical stores. (See primary source or citation here)
Type: order
Date Introduced: 06 oct 2020
Issue(s): Emergency
