THE African Economic Outlook bridges a critical knowledge gap on the diverse socio-economic realities of African economies through regular, rigorous, and comparative analysis

The launch of the African Development Bank’s 2018 flagship African Economic Outlook, AEO, report took place on Wednesday in Abidjan, Cote d’ Ivoire. it is the first to ever be released in January of a calendar year and at the Bank’s headquarters in Abidjan

The African Economic Outlook bridges a critical knowledge gap on the diverse socio-economic realities of African economies through regular, rigorous, and comparative analysis. It provides short-to-medium term forecasts on the evolution of key macroeconomic indicators for all 54 regional member countries, as well as analysis on the state of socio-economic challenges and progress made in each country. It represents African Development Bank staff economists’ analyses of African economic development during the previous year and near term. It has become the main flagship report for the African Development Bank, as well as reference material for policy makers, researchers, investors, key private sector players, civil society organizations, development partners, and many others interested in Africa’s development.

Given a rapidly changing Africa and international economic order, the bank has revamped the outlook to enhance its policy relevance while ensuring that it serves its operations well. Three main changes are evident.

First, to increase the AEO’s timeliness, the bank moved to an earlier release date so that as a leading African institution, it would be among the first to provide headline numbers on Africa’s macroeconomic performance and outlook. The plan is to launch the AEO in mid-January of every year.

Secondly, to facilitate advocacy and policy dialogue, the 2018 AEO is being shortened to a maximum of four chapters and about 140 pages, down from more than 300 pages.

In addition to the release of the main African Economic Outlook report on January 17,  the Bank will produce five independent African sub-regional Economic Outlooks in May 2018, with each report focusing on priority areas, and providing analysis of respective economic and social landscapes. The sub-regional reports will also highlight issues of pressing current interest.

Consistent with previous reports, the bank’s country economists also prepared detailed and much longer country notes for the May release, together will a full set of updated growth projections. For the January release, each one page note will provide a country profile with key recent developments and prospects.

Thematic coverage of previous editions

Edition         Thematic title

2003            Privatization

2004            Energy Supply and Demand

2005            Financing of Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) Development

2006            Promoting and Financing Transport Infrastructure

2007            Access to Drinking Water and Sanitation in Africa

2008            Technical and Vocational Training

2009            Information and Communication Technology across Africa

2010            Public Resource Mobilization and Aid

2011             Africa and its Emerging Partners

2012            Promoting Youth Employment

2013            Structural Transformation and Natural Resources

2014            Global Value Chains and Africa’s Industrialization

2015            Regional Development and Spatial Inclusion

2016            Sustainable Cities and Structural Transformation

2017            Entrepreneurship and Industrial Development

The report is available under http://APO.af/WbEO5p

–  Jan.  18, 2018 @ 14:12 GMT /