World Bank Group Country Manager to Liberia, Georgia Wallen
Monrovia-The World Bank has identified a major opportunity for Liberia to unlock additional fiscal resources by strengthening domestic revenue collection, improving public spending, harnessing natural-resource wealth, and managing fiscal risks, with reforms potentially generating annual fiscal gains of between 3.9 and 5.3 percent of GDP by 2030.
The assessment was contained in the Liberia Public Finance Review 2026, titled “From Stabilization to Fiscal Transformation,” launched Monday, September 7, 2026, as the World Bank urged Liberia to move beyond fiscal stabilization and enter a new phase focused on transforming the country’s public finances.
Speaking at the launch, World Bank Group Country Manager to Liberia, Georgia Wallen, commended the country for what she described as significant progress in strengthening macroeconomic and fiscal stability over recent years.
Wallen said Liberia has navigated a difficult economic environment while restoring greater fiscal discipline, noting improvements in economic growth, a significant narrowing of the fiscal deficit, and a decline in public debt.
“These achievements reflect proactive policy choices and sustained commitment,” Wallen said, describing the progress as a strong foundation upon which Liberia can build to meet its development ambitions.
But with the country moving closer to the target date for Liberia’s Vision 2030, the World Bank says stabilization alone will not be enough, as the major challenge, according to the Public Finance Review, is how Liberia can create greater and more sustainable fiscal space to finance national priorities under the Government’s ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development (AAID).
The AAID’s ambitious priorities in infrastructure, human capital, economic transformation, governance, and inclusive development are estimated to require approximately US$8.4 billion over five years.
Wallen said the Public Finance Review therefore focuses on a practical question: how Liberia can mobilize more resources, spend them more effectively, and protect the country’s finances from future shocks.
The World Bank also identified four major opportunities that could help Liberia finance its development agenda without placing excessive pressure on taxpayers, the first of which is increasing domestic revenue from the existing tax base.
According to the review, Liberia has the basic foundations needed to improve revenue mobilization, including a modern Revenue Code, a Medium-Term Revenue Strategy, and ongoing reforms to tax administration.
The report estimates Liberia’s tax gap at around 3 percent of GDP, suggesting that significant additional resources could be generated through stronger compliance and enforcement, expanded use of technology, and improved management of tax expenditures.
Importantly, the World Bank country manager said greater revenue does not necessarily have to come primarily through higher statutory tax rates.
It pointed to the successful implementation of the Value Added Tax, wider deployment of the Integrated Tax Administration System, and stronger governance and rationalization of tax expenditures as important building blocks for sustainable domestic revenue growth.
The second major opportunity lies in Liberia’s growing natural-resource sector, with Wallen revealing that mining revenues have increased approximately fivefold over the past decade, rising from about US$27 million in 2016 to US$141 million in 2025.
While describing the growth as significant progress, the World Bank believes Liberia can generate even greater national benefits from its mineral wealth.
The review recommends better information management, stronger revenue administration, improved audit capacity, and closer coordination among institutions responsible for the mining sector.
The objective is to ensure that Liberia’s natural resources translate into greater and more sustainable financing for national development.
The third opportunity is improving the quality and efficiency of government expenditure, as after years of fiscal adjustment, Wallen said Liberia’s next phase should focus increasingly on ensuring that every public dollar produces the greatest possible development impact.
Wallen highlighted better project preparation and execution, stronger procurement and payroll management, and closer integration of domestically and externally financed investments.
“Creating fiscal space is not simply about mobilizing additional revenue. It is also about ensuring that scarce public resources generate the greatest possible development return,” she emphasized.
The fourth opportunity also involves protecting the fiscal gains Liberia has already achieved, while the World Bank is calling for stronger oversight of state-owned enterprises, prudent management of public debt and contingent liabilities, and better integration of commodity and climate-related risks into fiscal planning.
Such measures, according to the review, would help Liberia preserve fiscal space and strengthen its ability to withstand future economic and environmental shocks.
Wallen stressed that Liberia does not need to begin the reform process from scratch, noting that many of the recommended measures are already underway.
Rather than creating another lengthy reform agenda, she said the Public Finance Review is intended to help policymakers prioritize, sequence, and accelerate reforms capable of delivering the greatest impact.
The potential economic payoff is substantial, with the World Bank estimating that sustained implementation of the proposed reforms could generate annual fiscal gains of 3.9 to 5.3 percent of GDP by 2030.
That additional fiscal space could provide Liberia with greater capacity to finance critical development priorities, including roads, electricity, healthcare, education, and climate resilience.
Ultimately, the World Bank said the fiscal transformation agenda is about more than government balance sheets, it is about jobs, improved public services, stronger economic opportunities, and a better quality of life for Liberians.
Wallen said the World Bank is prepared to deepen its partnership with the Government of Liberia, development partners, the private sector, and other stakeholders to translate the review’s recommendations into concrete reforms and measurable results.
“Liberia has shown that fiscal stabilization is achievable. Building on that achievement, the opportunity now is to turn greater fiscal space into better development outcomes for the Liberian people,” Wallen added.
