Economic News & Views on Africa
Economic Update
As the EU works to rebalance its gas supply away from Russia, African countries are expected to gain a larger share of the bloc’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) market in the coming years. Last month the EU announced that it would launch the first tenders for joint gas purchases in April, with contracts expected to be signed by June. This novel approach seeks to leverage the bloc’s purchasing power to secure supplies at lower prices ahead of the summer when EU countries are expected to refill their underground gas storage...
Economic View
On leveraging economic zones to bolster development
CEO Survey Analysis
While the recovery period following the Covid-19 pandemic saw the unlocking of major capital in emerging markets, inflationary pressures, fluctuating commodity prices and geopolitical concerns have since tempered the global economic outlook for 2023. Balancing opportunity and risk has become a priority for shareholders and investors, but emerging markets have remained resilient. Some regions, such as the Gulf, are looking to funnel elevated hydrocarbons revenue into sustainable mega-projects, whereas leaders in Asia...
Economic Update
As rising borrowing costs and recession concerns weighed on global venture capital investment in 2022, Africa’s start-up ecosystem attracted record funding. While most regions experienced double-digit declines in start-up funding last year, Africa posted gains in total investment volume, deals and number of investors. Start-up funding on the continent grew by roughly 5% in 2022, compared to a decline of 62% in Latin America and 39% in Asia Pacific. Globally, venture capital funding was down 35% at $445bn, albeit still well...
Economic Update
As the global industrial sector seeks to shrink its carbon footprint, a number of MENA countries are investing in green steel production to capture market share and help meet emissions targets.
Despite generating 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions, industry has been slow in adopting carbon-efficient manufacturing technologies. Steel is the manufacturing segment with the largest emissions, accounting for 7% of global emissions annually due in part to a reliance on coal to heat smelting furnaces.
The world produced nearly 2bn tonnes of steel in 2021, more than half of which was made in China, by far the world’s largest steel-producing country. The next largest, India, produced...
Economic Update
Although economies in Africa faced uncertainty in 2022 as economic and global shocks weighed on post-Covid-19 pandemic recovery, intraregional trade and climate finance initiatives are helping to chart a course towards more sustainable development.
Mirroring global trends, growth across the region is expected to slow from 4.7% in 2021 to 3.6% in 2022, according to the IMF’s regional economic outlook for sub-Saharan Africa.
Food security has become a central concern for many African nations, especially as high commodity prices, Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and climate change-induced natural disasters threaten food supply.
Flooding in West Africa between June and November...
Economic Update
Key reforms are lowering barriers to foreign direct investment (FDI) and improving the ease of doing business in Côte d’Ivoire as the country looks to rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic. The government aims to increase foreign and private investment to 72% of the total and process at least 50% of raw export commodities domestically by 2030...
Podcast
Bernardo Bruzzone, Regional Editor for Africa at Oxford Business Group, speaks with Professor Bruno Gérard, Head of the Agrobiosciences department at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P), about the opportunities and challenges present nowadays in the African agriculture sector. Africa has the potential to feed the world’s population in the coming years, however, there is room for more private investment to strengthen and modernise the sector in a continent where more than 70% of the population lives from agriculture...
Economic Update
While uncertainty abounds in global energy markets amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, African leaders are increasingly looking to the private sector to finance investment in clean energy ahead of the COP27 UN Conference on Climate Change, to be held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt in November 2022. The COP27 agenda will consider more than 140 projects in Africa, 19 of which are considered ready for implementation and investment, including four in Egypt that carry an estimated cost of $17.4bn but need additional...
