Finally, good news from Liberia

It is baffling to see just how much good governance can do for the economy, even in one of the world’s poorest and more violence-prone countries (it is #11 on FP’s Failed States Index) such as Liberia. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Harvard and World Bank alum, whose term as Liberian president started on Jan. 16th, has released Liberia’s first financial report in 20 years covering her first three months in office:

Finance ministry authorities said actual revenue generated amounted to US $26.2 million, which is 19 percent higher than projected and more then three times more than the same period last year when the fighting had stopped and a transitional government was in place.

There’s more:

Expenditure was also down on last year, said the report, plummeting to “only US $11.3 million compared to US $18.6 million in the last quarter of 2005, which is close to a 40 percent decline.” [..]

Liberia’s Finance Minister Antoinette Sayeh had more good news for reports on Wednesday when she announced that the International Monetary Fund had endorsed further cooperation with the Liberian government.