Publication: Equatorial Guinea Country Economic Memorandum: Building the Foundations for Renewed, More Diversified and Inclusive Growth
Loading...
Files
115 downloads
103 downloads
29 downloads
33 downloads
25 downloads
Date
2025-03-12
ISSN
Published
2025-03-12
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The focus of this Country Economic Memorandum (CEM) is to review key policy and reform options for Equatorial Guinea to build the foundations for renewed, diversified, and more inclusive growth. The CEM thus aims to contribute to the government’s economic development and diversification agendas. The first chapter of the report examines the drivers of past growth, and the country’s asset portfolio, and discusses possible long-term growth trajectories. The second chapter examines fiscal policy as the main instrument for efficient transformation of natural capital into physical and human capital, and outlines the fiscal challenges associated with the reliance on the volatile oil and gas markets. It identifies the key gaps in public financial management, including the challenges posed by climate change and provides reform options for implementing an effective fiscal policy. The third chapter explores the present state of education, health, and social protection and discusses priority options to boost human capital. The fourth chapter then turns to the private sector and the main cross-cutting issues that need to be addressed to encourage higher investment, innovation, and productivity. The final chapter drills down into some key sectors which are likely to play a prominent role in any new growth strategy. These include digitalization in both the public and private sectors, and integration into the world economy through trade and ecotourism.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2025. Equatorial Guinea Country Economic Memorandum: Building the Foundations for Renewed, More Diversified and Inclusive Growth. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42938 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 Argentina Country Economic Memorandum(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-06-20)Argentina’s production capabilities, characterized by its abundant natural capital assets and well-educated workforce, have the potential to drive sustained and inclusive economic growth. Argentina is home to diverse natural resources, including the world’s second-largest deposits of lithium, and the second-largest gas shale and fourth-largest shale oil reserves. Its fertile land makes it a major agricultural producer, ranking third in soybean production worldwide. Human capital is rooted in its historically high-quality education and health services, as well as notable achievements in knowledge-intensive sectors such as research and innovation. This report identifies three key constraints to sustaining growth in Argentina. First and foremost, macroeconomic volatility is largely responsible for poor growth outcomes: high policy uncertainty and fiscal procyclicality have contributed to a cycle of booms and crashes. Volatility is also driven by an increasing overreliance on primary commodities. Stubborn and high inflation in addition to abrupt changes in exchange rates reduce planning horizons for long-term investment and impede the development of capital markets. Second, restrictive trade policies, in place partly because of macroeconomic imbalances, prevent Argentina from leveraging its vast comparative advantages to reap the benefits of international trade. Third, while human capital is among Argentina’s greatest assets, its quality is gradually declining. Without corrective policies, the skills of the country’s workforce could fall rapidly behind those demanded by a dynamic, technology-driven, knowledge-intensive global economy.Publication Guinea-Bissau Country Economic Memorandum : Terra Ranca! A Fresh Start, Summary(Washington, DC, 2015-01-12)After decades of turmoil and instability, a period of calm and progress evolved in Guinea-Bissau in 2009. A military coup in April 2012 interrupted it. A fresh start is needed to alter the dynamics that kept Guinea-Bissau poor. In 2013, Gross National Income per capita was US$590. Average economic growth barely kept pace with population growth. In 2010, poverty at the national poverty line of US$2 a day was 70 percent; extreme poverty at US$1 a day was 33 percent. These numbers have increased from their 2002 levels and they are estimated to have increased further since 2010. It is time to make a fresh start and turn the page on anemic growth and poverty. Guinea-Bissau s elections of May and June 2014 are described by many observers as the freest and fairest in the country s history. Voter registration and turnout were at record-levels. The conditions for progress and stability are favorable. Guinea-Bissau is a rural economy, almost entirely dependent on a single cash crop: cashew. It is the main source of income for most of the country s poor. Cashew nuts are Guinea-Bissau s main export, accounting for 85 to 90 percent of the country s total exports. The balance of payments is dominated by cashew, on the export side, and food and fuel, among imports. The economy is open, with exports and imports by land and sea amounting to more than 70 percent of GDP. Shocks to cashew, rice and oil prices have a considerable effect on the current account balance. Official Development Assistance (ODA) makes a critical contribution to supporting the state budget. In 2011, Guinea-Bissau ranked 20th among the world s most aid dependent countries. Recently, policy mistakes aggravated an already dire situation. However, the 2014 cashew campaign was been better than the 2013 campaign, and the prospects for a pick-up in growth have improved.Publication Guinea-Bissau Country Economic Memorandum : Terra Ranca! A Fresh Start(Washington, DC, 2015-01-12)After decades of turmoil and instability, a period of calm and progress evolved in Guinea-Bissau in 2009. A military coup in April 2012 interrupted it. A fresh start is needed to alter the dynamics that kept Guinea-Bissau poor. In 2013, Gross National Income per capita was US$590. Average economic growth barely kept pace with population growth. In 2010, poverty at the national poverty line of US$2 a day was 70 percent; extreme poverty at US$1 a day was 33 percent. These numbers have increased from their 2002 levels and they are estimated to have increased further since 2010. It is time to make a fresh start and turn the page on anemic growth and poverty. Guinea-Bissau s elections of May and June 2014 are described by many observers as the freest and fairest in the country s history. Voter registration and turnout were at record-levels. The conditions for progress and stability are favorable. Guinea-Bissau is a rural economy, almost entirely dependent on a single cash crop: cashew. It is the main source of income for most of the country s poor. Cashew nuts are Guinea-Bissau s main export, accounting for 85 to 90 percent of the country s total exports. The balance of payments is dominated by cashew, on the export side, and food and fuel, among imports. The economy is open, with exports and imports by land and sea amounting to more than 70 percent of GDP. Shocks to cashew, rice and oil prices have a considerable effect on the current account balance. Official Development Assistance (ODA) makes a critical contribution to supporting the state budget. In 2011, Guinea-Bissau ranked 20th among the world s most aid dependent countries. Recently, policy mistakes aggravated an already dire situation. However, the 2014 cashew campaign was been better than the 2013 campaign, and the prospects for a pick-up in growth have improved.Publication Mineral-Rich Countries and Dutch Disease : Understanding the Macroeconomic Implications of Windfalls and the Development Prospects, The Case of Equatorial Guinea(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-04)Referring to the original context of Dutch Disease, the term refers to the fears of de-industrialization that gripped the Netherlands as a result of the appreciation of the Dutch currency that followed the discovery of natural gas deposits. Expansion of petroleum exports in the 1960s not only crowded out other exports, it actually reduced other exports disproportionately and fueled the fears of dire consequences for Dutch manufacturing. In the case of Equatorial Guinea, the secondary sector represents about 2 percent of the gross domestic product, manufacturing represents less than 1 percent, and oil represents more than 95 percent. The negative impact of the Dutch Disease in this context would be limited given the structure of the economy and on the contrary may even be a good thing because it fuels the structural transformational process of the economy, which is needed in Equatorial Guinea. This paper argues that the ongoing Dutch Disease is a natural and necessary reallocation of resources in the economy of Equatorial Guinea. The magnitude of negative macroeconomic consequences of the Dutch Disease depends on the country's economic structure and stage of development. In a country where the manufacturing sector barely exists or where the non-oil primary sector is structurally deficient, as has been the case of Equatorial Guinea, there is little to fear about the disease. The oil boom is a blessing, given that oil revenues when properly managed can play a special and critical role in overall economic development and poverty reduction in low-income countries. To promote good governance in the management of the country's oil wealth, the government may wish to adhere to clear standards of accountability and transparency; especially by complying with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI++).Publication Reviving Romania's Growth and Convergence Challenges and Opportunities : A Country Economic Memorandum(Washington, DC, 2013-06-21)This Country Economic Memorandum (CEM) sets a framework for a dialogue on inclusive economic growth and income convergence in Romania. Generous Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and other financial inflows lifted consumer demand, built up key industries, modernized wholesale trade and unleashed the movement of labor from low-productivity activities like agriculture towards high-productivity activities like manufacturing. Public and private investments in education lifted tertiary education enrollment from 12 to 23 percent. Preliminary calculations suggest that this growth was shared even after the crisis, as the income of the bottom 40 percent of the population grew by 5.5 percent on average during the 2000-2011 periods, a pace slightly above the 4.8 percent growth in the income of all households and the 4.1 percent average growth. Achievements notwithstanding, there is little room for complacency. The report discusses the immediate constraints to economic growth in areas where the short-term pay-off is high rather than covering all potential sources of growth for Romania. Although these are only the initial steps to reignite growth, the challenges of addressing each of these constraints should not be underestimated. Tackling them effectively demands a strong strategic vision, meticulous planning, and policy coordination. A significant amount of strategic communication of the benefits of the outlined reforms for the country will also be required since the roadblock to shaping and implementing these policies is likely to be vested interests, institutional inertia and lack of political consensus. In short, the crisis revealed the weakness of Romania's past growth model: it was based to a large extent on consumption and short-term capital inflows rather than on sustained productivity increases in tradable sectors and it concealed significant inefficiencies in the public sector.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Economy Profile of West Bank and Gaza(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-10-31)Sixteenth in a series of annual reports comparing business regulation in 190 economies, Doing Business 2019 covers 11 areas of business regulation. Ten of these areas - starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency - are included in the ease of doing business score and ease of doing business ranking. Doing Business also measures features of labor market regulation, which is not included in these two measures. Doing Business provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies and selected cities at the subnational and regional level. This economy profile presents indicators for West Bank and Gaza; for 2019 West Bank and Gaza ranks 116.Publication Looking Beyond the Horizon(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-06)The story of how the PVH Corp. (referred to throughout this document as PVH) came to leada group of its top suppliers to build factories and a fabric mill in Ethiopia’s Hawassa IndustrialPark (HIP) is the study of a strong collaboration between a private company looking to optimizeits business model and a government aiming to transform its economy through global strategic repositioning. The success of this story hinges upon the intersection of their goals and a shared vision of development that includes a strong commitment to social and environmental goals.PVH was motivated to invest in Ethiopia to respond to shifts in the global apparel sector, its growing desire to retool its business model and to address its concerns about compliance with social and environmental standards in its traditional sourcing locations. PVH had decided to rethink its business model and to look beyond the horizon towards a new region in which tolocate its manufacturing base. To have better oversight and enforcement, PVH moved to adopta fully integrated vertical supply chain, including direct investment in one of the manufacturingfacilities.Key to Ethiopia’s success in attracting this important investor was the government’s ability and willingness to strategically evaluate its foreign direct investment (FDI) needs and strategy and to take steps to evolve into an attractive location for higher value-added export-oriented investment.This case study explains a private investor’s site selection process. It assesses the elements PVH prioritized when deciding to commit to Ethiopia, and specifically to HIP. The case study further assesses the government of Ethiopia’s strategy, level of readiness, interest, and commitment, and sets out some key challenges that lie ahead for this partnership. The case study is structured in ten sections. Section second offers a brief background on the textile and apparel industry, including an explanation of its value chain. It provides a brief corporate profile of PVH and its current global footprint and business model. Section third describes the site selection process: PVH´s initial explorations in Africa, its consideration of several African countries, and its initial conversations and negotiations with Ethiopian authorities. Section fourth discusses the Ethiopian government’s strategy to attract and expand export-oriented investments, including efforts to bolster the country’s competitiveness. This section attempts to offer some explanation why Ethiopia was the right fit at the right time and its level of readiness to land such an investment. It provides a brief profile of PVH’s Africa point of entry, the HIP. Section sixth covers the challenges that lie ahead for this-project---potential setbacks that will affect not only the consolidation and growth of the textiles and apparel industry in Ethiopia, but also the government’s vision of becoming the “manufacturing powerhouse of Africa.” Section eighth concludes with some key lessons from PVH’s decision to invest in Ethiopia. Such lessons may be relevant to countries or regions interested inattracting FDI and may be of particular interest to other African countries in their quest to attract major investments in the textile and apparel sector.Publication World Development Report 2017(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017-01-30)Why are carefully designed, sensible policies too often not adopted or implemented? When they are, why do they often fail to generate development outcomes such as security, growth, and equity? And why do some bad policies endure? This book addresses these fundamental questions, which are at the heart of development. Policy making and policy implementation do not occur in a vacuum. Rather, they take place in complex political and social settings, in which individuals and groups with unequal power interact within changing rules as they pursue conflicting interests. The process of these interactions is what this Report calls governance, and the space in which these interactions take place, the policy arena. The capacity of actors to commit and their willingness to cooperate and coordinate to achieve socially desirable goals are what matter for effectiveness. However, who bargains, who is excluded, and what barriers block entry to the policy arena determine the selection and implementation of policies and, consequently, their impact on development outcomes. Exclusion, capture, and clientelism are manifestations of power asymmetries that lead to failures to achieve security, growth, and equity. The distribution of power in society is partly determined by history. Yet, there is room for positive change. This Report reveals that governance can mitigate, even overcome, power asymmetries to bring about more effective policy interventions that achieve sustainable improvements in security, growth, and equity. This happens by shifting the incentives of those with power, reshaping their preferences in favor of good outcomes, and taking into account the interests of previously excluded participants. These changes can come about through bargains among elites and greater citizen engagement, as well as by international actors supporting rules that strengthen coalitions for reform.Publication Senegal : Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) : Corporate Governance Country Assessment(Washington, DC, 2006-06)This report provides an assessment of Senegal's corporate governance policy framework, enforcement, and compliance practices. It highlights recent improvements in corporate governance regulation, makes policy recommendations, and provides investors with a benchmark against which to measure corporate governance in Senegal. The report identifies several key next steps that can be carried out in Senegal and that focus on implementation, including: (i) developing program to build awareness of the importance of corporate governance and to train directors in modern corporate governance principles; (ii) drafting a code of corporate governance; (iii) addressing governance weaknesses in the state-owned enterprises. A separate report reviews the special issues for the corporate governance of state-owned enterprises in Senegal; and (iv) revising the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA) uniform act for commercial companies (over the long term) to incorporate modern corporate governance principles.Publication A Puzzle with Missing Pieces(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-12)The identification of key determinants of aid effectiveness is a long-standing question in the development community. This paper reviews the literature on aid effectiveness at the project level and then extends the inquiry in a variety of dimensions with new data on World Bank investment project financing. It confirms that the country institutional setting and quality of project supervision are associated with project success, as identified previously. However, many aspects of the development project cycle, especially project design, have been difficult to measure and therefore under-investigated. The paper finds that project design, as proxied by the estimated value added of design staff, the presence of prior analytic work, and other specially collected measures, is a significant predictor of ultimate project success. These factors generally grow in predictive importance as the income level of the country rises. The results also indicate that a key determinant of the staff’s contribution is their experience with previous World Bank projects, but not other characteristics such as age, education, or country location. Key inputs to the project production process associated with subsequent performance are not captured in routine data systems, although it is feasible to do so. Further, the conceptualization and measurement of the success of project-based aid should be revisited by evaluative bodies to reflect a project’s theorized contribution to development outcomes.