Gabon has cut its 2017 budget by more than 5 percent due to persistently low crude prices and falling oil out put. In a statement released, the cabinet said that next year’s budget will drop to 2.478 trillion CFA franc about $ 4.23 billion from 2.626 trillion CFA franc this year.
This comes after a small budget drop this year and a 14 percent drop in 2015, both due to plummeting crude prices since 2014.
The oil producing central African economy is just from a hotly disputed election in which president Ali Bongo won by a razor- thin margin. He has promised to diversify Gabon’s economy away from oil but analysts say that a falling budget will likely apply further political pressure on his rule.
Gabon is Africa’s fourth largest oil producer with an out put of around 220,000 barrels per day. Read the full story here.