Publication: Gabon Economic Update: Designing Fiscal Policies for Sustainable Forestry
Loading...
Date
2024-10-29
ISSN
Published
2024-10-29
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The Gabon Economic Update is an annual World Bank publication that presents an overview of the evolving macroeconomic position in Gabon, followed by a detailed exploration of a specific topic in each edition. The first chapter analyzes recent economic developments, key development challenges, as well as the macroeconomic outlook and risks for Gabon’s future growth. It presents policy actions that could help strengthen fiscal and debt sustainability, contain food inflation, promote job creation, and sustain a resilient growth path. The second chapter of this year’s economic update has a special focus dedicated to fiscal policies for the forestry sector. This chapter analyzes how fiscal policy reforms for forestry can contribute to generating more fiscal revenues, creating more jobs, and promoting sustainable production methods. This report is based on data available as of May 2024.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2024. Gabon Economic Update: Designing Fiscal Policies for Sustainable Forestry. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42319 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Gabon Economic Update, April 2023 - Special Topic(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-06-21)The Gabon Economic Update is an annual World Bank publication that presents an overview of the evolving macroeconomic position in Gabon, followed by a detailed exploration of a specific topic in each edition. The first chapter analyzes recent economic developments, as well as the macroeconomic outlook and risks for Gabon’s future growth. It presents policy actions that could help strengthen fiscal and debt sustainability, contain food inflation, and sustain a resilient growth path. The second chapter of this year’s Economic Update has a special focus dedicated to fossil fuel subsidies, which represent a growing fiscal burden in Gabon. This chapter analyzes the costs of fuel subsidies and discusses policy options for alleviating their fiscal impact while protecting the most vulnerable groups in the country.Publication Republic of Congo Economic Update, 11th Edition(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-08-12)This is the eleventh edition of the Republic of Congo Economic Update. Each edition of this annual report presents an overview of the Republic of Congo’s (ROC) evolving macroeconomic position, followed by a detailed exploration of a specific topic. The first chapter of this year’s update presents recent economic developments and macroeconomic outlook and risks. It also includes policy actions that could help strengthen fiscal and debt sustainability, build resilience to climate shocks, strengthen food security, and lay the foundation for broad-based economic growth. The second chapter, the special topic, explores how Congo might design fiscal instruments for sustainable forestry and economic growth.Publication Gabon Economic Update - Trading Agricultural Commodities(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-06)Gabon’s economic recovery has been intensifying, with oil and other commodities projected to drive GDP growth to 2.7 percent in 2022, up from 1.5 percent in 2021. The fiscal stance improved in 2021 amid contained spending and is expected to turn into a surplus in 2022. While debt-to-GDP remains sustainable amidst gradual economic recovery and high oil prices, debt arrears remain high. The uptick in oil prices compensated for the decline in production and led to a trade surplus in 2021, which is expected to remain high in 2022. Food insecurity could be exacerbated by the ongoing war in Ukraine as Gabon is highly vulnerable to shocks in the agricultural sector. The government has adopted plans to increase agricultural production. Despite the government’s efforts to increase agricultural production, Gabon’s agricultural trade remains hampered by structural bottlenecks related to weak supporting infrastructure, the high number of intermediaries, and price uncertainty. Informal payments and obstacles for imports into Gabon, including petty harassment, add to already high import duties and can contribute to informality, unpredictability, and delays in border crossing and transport network. Reducing petty harassment would support trade in agriculture, reduce the overall cost of living for the population, and foster economic growth in Gabon.Publication Guinea Economic Update(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-09-19)This is the first annual edition of Guinea Economic Update. This annual report presents an overview of Guinea’s evolving macroeconomic position, followed by a detailed exploration of a specific topic. The first chapter of this first edition presents recent economic developments, macroeconomic outlook and risks. The second chapter discusses the importance of agriculture for structural transformation and climate proofing Guinea’s economy. It also includes measures that could help the Guinean Government foster agriculture growth that has increased productivity, is more inclusive, is more resilient to climate change risks, while also contributing less to climate change. Policy actions that could help the Guinean authorities foster agriculture growth that is inclusive, more resilient to climate change risks, while also contributing less to climate change include: prioritize policy reforms and investments in the most vulnerable sectors; rethink agricultural input subsidies (mainly water and fertilizer use) to support the adoption of climate-resilient agricultural production practices and approaches to reduce post-harvest losses; rehabilitate and upgrade and make irrigation infrastructure; invest in water mobilization infrastructure; establish mechanisms to facilitate transforming agriculture and food systems from subsistence to market oriented; invest in sustainable forestry practices, such as reforestation and afforestation; and upgrade road and power assets to climate-resilient design standards.Publication Comoros Economic Update, June 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-07-21)Comoros has a rare opportunity to break from its historical cycle of low growth by leveraging recent stability to implement transformative policies that promote inclusive development and resilience. Despite achieving greater stability since reunification, the economy has not broken from its historical pattern of stagnation. Growth has remained persistently weak, keeping per capita income virtually unchanged over time. This prolonged underperformance has left poverty levels stubbornly high, with minimal improvement compared to peer nations. The country’s limited progress has been further exposed by recent global shocks, underscoring the urgent need for transformative policies to spur inclusive growth and build resilience. However, the enhanced stability that the country has recently achieved, coupled with the opportunity to host the 2027 Indian Ocean Island Games, represents a pivotal turning point for driving reform momentum.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Tunisia Economic Monitor, Fall 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-11-14)The Tunisian economy experienced a modest growth of 0.6 percent in the first half of 2024, following zero growth in 2023. By the end of 2024, Tunisia is projected to be the only country in its region with a real GDP still below pre-pandemic levels. The limited recovery in agriculture, coupled with declines in the oil and gas, garments, and construction sectors, hindered economic growth. Below-average rainfall restricted agricultural growth, which only recovered a third of the significant losses from the first half of 2023. The garment sector suffered due to reduced demand from the European Union, Tunisia's main export market. Oil and gas production continued its decade-long decline due to a lack of new investments, and the construction sector was impacted by limited domestic demand and challenging external financing conditions.Publication Is Escaping the Fiscal Pro-Cyclicality Trap Possible? Evidence from the Middle East and North Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-28)This paper analyzes fiscal policy cyclicality, with a specific focus on the Middle East and North Africa region, which is known for its significant output volatility. The paper provides new and more granular evidence on the direction, intensity, and specific fiscal sources of cyclicality. Based on annual data covering 184 countries from 2000 to 2022, the findings suggest that there are important differences in the assessment of countercyclical fiscal policy achievements among different fiscal policy variables, across world regions, and also within the Middle East and North Africa region. While the global associations between fiscal cyclicality and income levels have remained relatively stable, countries in the Middle East and North Africa have exhibited diverse performances, some transitioning toward countercyclicality and others moving away from it. The paper also identifies several countries in the Middle East and North Africa that have successfully shifted from procyclical to countercyclical fiscal policy, breaking free from the “fiscal pro-cyclicality trap.” To understand more specific fiscal sources of cyclicality, the paper examines subcomponents of revenues and expenditure. It shows that nontax revenues exhibit a greater degree of procyclicality than tax revenues, and subsidy expenditures tend to be less countercyclical than other fiscal expenditures. This has policy implications and adds a dimension of assessment to subsidies that is not addressed in the literature: subsidies, being less countercyclical than other expenditures in the Middle East and North Africa, do not contribute to macroeconomic stability and long-term growth through this channel, independent of their adverse efficiency, distributional, and fiscal space effects. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings, aimed at improving countercyclicality in fiscal policy.Publication Reality Check(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-19)To address the myriad challenges posed by global climate change, countries at all income levels have put in place a diverse set of policies over the past three decades. Many governments have already made significant progress in their efforts to decarbonize, creating a rich history of implementation experiences that provides important lessons for how to successfully advance climate policy goals in a variety of different economic, cultural, and political contexts. Despite this progress, the transition to a net zero future continues to face significant barriers, including the need for large investment, a lack of institutional capacity, and challenging political economy issues. ‘Reality Check: Lessons from 25 Policies Advancing a Low-Carbon Future’ identifies key policy approaches that countries are taking to decarbonize their economies. The report classifies policies into five categories: 1. Planning for a future with zero net emissions; 2. Getting the pricing and taxes right; 3. Facilitating and triggering transitions in key systems, such as energy and food; 4. Getting the finance flowing, particularly by incentivizing private sector investment; 5. Ensuring a just transition that protects the poor. ‘Reality Check: Lessons from 25 Policies Advancing a Low-Carbon Future’ fills a critical research gap by documenting low-carbon policy trends and providing a series of case studies across sectors and geographies. The 25 case studies furnish country contexts and policy details, examine results and impacts, and outline key takeaways and lessons learned for enabling further ambition in achieving emissions reductions. The report contributes to an evolving analytical agenda on how to reduce carbon emissions while achieving economic development and the strategic transition to a greener, more resilient, and more inclusive future.Publication CEMAC Economic Barometer, November 2024, Vol 7(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-03)The CEMAC Economic Barometer is a semi-annual World Bank publication that presents a snapshot of recent developments and the economic outlook of the CEMAC region, followed by a brief assessment at the country level. It includes a focused technical section on a theme of regional relevance. This edition’s special topic provides policy options for the CEMAC countries to address challenges in the forestry sector, such as effectively designing fiscal instruments, improving forest governance, and increasing financial and technical support from the international community. It highlights how fiscal instruments can incentivize sustainable forestry and generate government revenue.Publication Fiscal Policy’s Role in Economic Resilience to Climate Shocks(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-11-22)The impacts of climate change on developing economies are becoming increasingly severe, creating challenges for risk management and requiring enhanced levels of resilience. This paper explores how to mitigate the effects of such climate shocks on developing economies, placing a particular focus on the role fiscal policy in creating and strengthening an economy’s resilience. Using data on natural disasters, the analysis shows that economies with constrained fiscal space experience more pronounced negative effects. In an application to a small open economy, the paper tests the presence of the non-linearity of short- and long-run disaster impacts in the World Bank’s macroeconomic and fiscal model and illustrates the importance of fiscal policy in mitigating shocks.