Economic Recovery in Gambia : Insights for Adjustment in Sub-Saharan Africa

In the 1980s, world recession, drought, civil conflict and other forces brought major economic upheaval to the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. Most of the early efforts by governments to stabilize their economies met with little success, but The Gambia was an exception. In 1985 the government introduced the Economic Recovery Programme, one of the most sweeping reform programmes attempted on the continent. The economy quickly stabilized, with the rate of inflation falling to below ten percent and the overall balance of payments in surplus for the first time since the early 1970s.