Somaliland's minister of finance, Mohamed Hashi Elmi, told the media on January 16th that the government had doubled the salaries of all employees in the military and the civil service. The announcement came after Somaliland's new president, Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud Silanyo, refused on January 1st to sign a bill passed by parliament in mid-November to raise the salaries of members of parliament, a raise that he said would outrage many citizens. Although such a large pay rise would be greeted with joy by officials in most countries, in Somaliland many will have been disappointed, as the ruling party, Kulmiye, had pledged to authorise a staggering 300% salary increase across the board. The finance minister explained that this larger rise would not be immediately possible owing to the deficit that the new government had inherited from its predecessor, although he promised that public-sector salaries would continue to increase when conditions allowed. Nonetheless, the pay rise for all state employees is expected to have a significant inflationary impact. Consequently, the increase in buying power of public-sector employees is expected to be less than the rise in nominal terms would suggest.