Cameroon’s Energy Subsidy Swelled to 3% of GDP Last Year

  • Fuel and gas subsidy costs topped $1 billion by end-December
  • Bill has risen from just 0.5% of GDP in 2021, according to IMF

Paul Biya

Photographer: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
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Cameroon spent 3% of its gross domestic product subsidizing fuel and gas to curb its citizens’ rising energy costs in 2022, a share six times bigger than the previous year.

The central African nation’s petroleum product subsidies reached 775 billion CFA francs ($1.3 billion) by the end of December, President Paul Biya said in his first speech of 2023.