The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
In the past two decades, Maldives has achieved remarkable economic progress and reductions in poverty. However, the country faces high exposure to global risks including an . existential threat of rising sea levels. A unique feature of Maldives is the economic enclaves that encourage industry and international tourism. The general …
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global economic recession. As the COVID-19 pandemic spread to every part of the world, governments released policies to restrict people`s socio-economic activities to limit the spread of COVID-19. The pandemic and related measures have great impact to consumption, investment, manufacture, trade among socioeconomic activities …
A new report from Endeavor Nigeria reveals that Africa’s digital economy and tech ecosystem is set to experience exponential growth periods. The report is dubbed “The Inflection Point: Africa’s Digital Economy is Poised to Take Off.” It highlights important events in the continent’s tech ecosystem until this point, compares its …
This report provides an overview of the current state of circularity in the electronics value chain in Africa, identifies key areas of concern, provides appropriate recommendations, and proposes priority actions to improve circularity of the sector. The recommendations focus on the individual life cycle stages of the electronics value chain, …
Compounding the damage from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has magnified the slowdown in the global economy, which is entering what could become a protracted period of feeble growth and elevated inflation, according to the World Bank’s latest Global Economic Prospects report. This raises the risk of …
This year's SDR shows that for the second year in a row, the world is no longer making progress on the SDGs. A global plan to finance the SDGs is needed. At mid-point on the way to 2030, policy efforts and commitments supporting the SDGs vary significantly across countries, including …
Global food, fuel, and fertilizer prices have risen rapidly in recent months, driven in large part by the fallout from the ongoing war in Ukraine and the sanctions imposed on Russia. Other factors, such as export bans, have also contributed to rising prices. Palm oil and wheat prices increased by …
The 8th edition of the Mozambique Economic Update (MEU): Getting Agricultural Support Right focuses its analysis on the potential offered by agriculture to promote a sustainable and more inclusive recovery, and outlines reform options to realign agricultural support policies to achieve competitiveness, climate resilience and food security objectives. In its …
Investment is an important driver of economic growth with important implications for debt sustainability. Investment efficiency gaps adversely impact debt sustainability in Africa. The current heightened fiscal vulnerabilities can be attributed to external factors including volatile commodity prices particularly for commodity-exporting countries and health challenges like COVID-19 pandemic that weakened …
Kenya managed to contain the health and economic impacts of multiple Coronavirus (COVID-19) waves in 2021, helped by targeted containment measures and progress on vaccination, but is now facing a potentially large economic shock from the war in Ukraine. One sector is critical to achieving Kenya’s development goals, accounts for …
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has set back the economy and fiscal balances of Sierra Leone, which are now further impacted by the war in Ukraine. Real gross domestic product (GDP) growth turned negative in 2020, while the government’s efforts to reduce the fiscal deficit were undermined by the need for …
The theme of the 2022 African Economic Outlook is Supporting Climate Resilience and a Just Energy Transition in Africa. Despite having 17% of the current global population, Africa has accounted for a negligible 3% of cumulative worldwide CO2 emissions historically. However, climate change and extreme weather events disproportionately affect Africa, …
Africa’s Development Dynamics uses lessons from Central, East, North, Southern and West Africa to develop policy recommendations and share good practices. Drawing on the most recent statistics, the analysis of development dynamics aims to assist African leaders in reaching the targets of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 at all levels: …
The war in Ukraine has triggered a costly humanitarian crisis that demands a peaceful resolution. At the same time, economic damage from the conflict will contribute to a significant slowdown in global growth in 2022 and add to inflation. Fuel and food prices have increased rapidly, hitting vulnerable populations in …
Employment in countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has grown one percent per year on average within private sector firms, which is much lower than the five percent average among other middle-income peers. In addition, the female labor force participation rate of 20% is the lowest in …
The disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic pushed an estimated 55 million Africans into extreme poverty in 2020 and reversed more than two decades of progress in poverty reduction on the continent. This is according to the Economic Report on Africa 2021(ERA2021). Titled: “Addressing Poverty and Vulnerability in Africa during …
Small island developing States (SIDS) are among the most water-scarce countries in the world, with seven in ten SIDS facing risks of water shortage, including nine in ten low-lying SIDS (UNESCO, UNEP, 2016). Water being an element of life, its scarcity undermines fundamental priorities, such as the human right to …
The unemployment rate for persons of 15 years and above in urban areas slipped to 8.7 per cent in October-December 2021 from 10.3 per cent in the year-ago quarter, showed a periodic labour force survey by the National Statistical Office (NSO). Joblessness or unemployment rate (UR) is defined as the …
The present Statistical Abstract 2022 is the Tenth in the series brought out by the Directorate on the basis of secondary data sources. The uniqueness of Statistical Abstract is that it contains time series data on various socio-economic parameters and serves as an effective quantitative tool for reaching to logical …
A green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in Southeast Asia has the potential to create $172 billion in investment opportunities annually and generate more than 30 million jobs by 2030, according to a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) report. Implementing a Green Recovery in Southeast Asia considers how green growth …