The Prime Minister of Cape Verde, Ulisses Correia e Silva, presented, on Monday, in Parliament, what he considers visible results of governance and measures with an impact on income and stabilization of prices, ensuring that the economy recovers well from successive crises.
According to Lusa, in the debate in the second parliamentary session in October on “Income and Price Policy”, Ulisses Correia e Silva noted that the current context is still marked by crises, such as severe droughts, consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine.
In this sense, he said that the Government’s income and price policy had to be accommodated to protect employment and income and reduce the impacts of inflation on families and companies. In a “very difficult context, which no other Government in Cape Verde has faced since the advent of democracy”, the Prime Minister showed the “visible results” of the governance, which began in 2016, such as the increase in the wage bill by 32.7% from then until 2022.
He also pointed out the increase in the minimum wage, which went from 11 thousand escudos (99 euros) in 2016 to 16 thousand escudos (145 euros) in 2024, for the Public Service, and 15 thousand escudos (136 euros), for the private sector, expected to reach 17 thousand escudos (154 euros) in 2025. Another result is that more employed workers now have social security coverage, reaching 65% in 2022, as well as the predicted reduction in the unemployment rate to 8.7 % this year (it was 12.1% in 2022).
The absolute poverty rate fell to 20% in the second quarter of 2023 and extreme poverty fell to 9.4% in the second quarter of 2023, he continued. To make income available and alleviate families’ burdens, he recalled, the Government created, among others, the Social Inclusion Income (RSI), which next year will benefit more than 9 thousand families, and increased the value and number of beneficiaries of the Social Pension, covering more than 25 thousand elderly people.
To protect family incomes in the face of price increases, he said that the Executive reduced VAT on electricity and water from 15% to 8% and increased discounts on the social electricity tariff from 30 to 50%. The Cape Verdean Prime Minister also presented some measures that will be implemented next year, such as the Career, Functions and Remuneration Plan for general regime career staff, the Management Personnel Statute or the second Precarious Employment Regularization Program in Central Public Administration.
According to the Prime Minister, after successive crises, the country’s economy “is recovering well”, with economic growth, reduced unemployment, reduced poverty and reduced public debt. In his intervention, the leader of the MpD parliamentary group , Paulo Veiga, praised the “responsible and effective measures” that have been implemented by the Government to guarantee purchasing power and face rising inflation.
Opposition criticism
In turn, the two Cape Verdean opposition parties warned of the “significant loss” of families’ purchasing power and considered that the Government failed “in a clear and systematic way” in the Income and Price Policy. In the debate, the Prime Minister was “forced” to work harder to obtain more substantial results.
