News & Events

14/03/2013 - The euro area continues to be the largest trading partner of the franc zone countries with a very important share (more than 70 per cent of trade) in half of the 14 countries. Membership of this zone has the advantage of restraining inflation over the long term. The common currency has also been used as a basis for regional integration with strong institutions. However, compared to other African countries, the franc zone countries are less competitive in international markets and seem less equipped to counteract some exogenous shocks, which partly explain their low growth rate.

Categories: Economic & Financial Governance

28/02/2013 - This paper, published in January 2013 by the Chief Economist Complex of the African Development Bank, examines donor practices in the use of budgetary aid to promote economic and structural reforms in developing countries, notably in Africa. It is based on an observation in recent literature to the effect that, despite its increased use since its conception in the 1980s, budgetary aid appears to have had limited impact on the design and implementation of economic reforms in developing countries.

Categories: Economic & Financial Governance

26/02/2013 - Africa’s trade with the United States grew by more than 500 per cent between 2001 and 2011, but many African countries missed out on that five-fold growth, a leading Washington expert told African Development Bank (AfDB) staff recently.

Categories: Regional Integration, Human and Social Development, Agriculture & Agro-industries

19/02/2013 - The African Development Bank (AfDB) has launched an ambitious program to significantly improve data management and dissemination in Africa. The ultimate goal of the program is to facilitate wider public access to official statistics and to support countries in their efforts to improve data quality and dissemination for better policy formulation, monitoring and evaluation. The program was launched in November 2012 as part of the Bank’s broader statistical capacity building program in Africa.

Categories: Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, Cameroon, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Tunisia, South Sudan, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Infrastructure, Information & Communication Technology, Human and Social Development

14/02/2013 - “Africa is transforming, but the pace of economic transformation can be accelerated,” says the Chief Economist of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Prof. Mthuli Ncube. “How can emerging Africa accelerate its structural transformation and achieve a strong, sustained and inclusive growth?” Ncube asks. The African Development Institute under the Chief Economist Office will on 27 May 2013 in Morocco organize this year’s Bank Group Annual Meetings High-level seminar on the theme: “Africa’s Structural Transformation,” to attempt to answer the above-stated question.

Categories: Morocco

12/02/2013 - The Chief Economist Complex of the African Development Bank Group has released an Economic Brief on the application of diaspora bonds in an African context. Drawing lessons from diaspora bond issuances in Israel, Ethiopia and India, the paper, entitled “Diaspora Bonds: Some Lessons for African Countries”, argues that tapping migration wealth could be an effective means of funding development on the continent.

Categories: Migration and Development Initiative, Economic & Financial Governance

06/12/2012 - “‛Bread, freedom and social justice’ is what Egyptian revolutionaries called for in the January 25 revolution; the one issue that touches on all of this is unemployment,” Egypt’s Prime Minister Hisham Kandil said in a speech during the official opening of the “Youth Employment: Building the Future of Egypt” forum co-organized by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Social Fund for Development (SFD) in Cairo on December 5.

Categories: Egypt, Education, Human and Social Development, Youth

12/11/2012 - African countries ought to reject the Economic Partnership Agreements that the European Union is currently trying to force on them and instead get it to sign migration agreements that have the effect of benefiting both parties equally, Shantayanan Devarajan, the World Bank’s Chief Economist for Africa, told the African Economic Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, on November 1.

Categories: Rwanda, Human and Social Development, Youth

02/11/2012 - “Africa can have a brighter future, and has the potential to become the next emerging market by the end of this decade… Also, the continent’s long-term growth prospects are strong, propelled by both external trends in the global economy and internal changes in the continent’s societies and economies.”

Categories: Rwanda, Economic & Financial Governance, Human and Social Development, Youth