Oil industry loses 58 billion FCFA in first half of 2015

The Cameroonian government in its mid-year review of budget implementation, reported 221.6 billion for its 2015 oil revenues (end of June) against 221.6 billion FCFA for the same period last year.

An expected consequence of global oil crisis, these revenues are 58 billion FCFA less than last year’s and are 123 billion FCFA lower than the amount forecasted for 2015 (344.8 billion FCFA for the first half).

However, the statistics recorded over the first six months of the year suggest that Cameroon is heading towards a global reduction of its losses in oil revenues.

Truly, considering the 300 billion FCFA government forecasted for 2015’s losses in oil revenues, the half-year 58 billion FCFA cut is a milestone to attaining smaller losses than those initially expected.

Despite the losses Cameroon recorded in its oil revenues, its public finances, at June 2015 ending, have been on an upward slope. They have been estimated to 1,790 billion FCFA out of the 1,779.6 billion FCFA initially expected for the first half of 2015, thus representing a 10 billion FCFA increase from initial forecast.

This encouraging performance is a result of efforts from tax and customs authorities that mobilized 828 billion CFA franc (against 734.7 FCFA for the same period last year) and 343 billion FCFA (against 327 billion FCFA in 2014’s first half) respectively, over the first half of the year.