Publication:
Equatorial Guinea Economic Update, 1st Edition: Reforming Fossil Fuel Subsidies

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (1.64 MB)
1,119 downloads
English Text (196.41 KB)
24 downloads
Other Files
Spanish PDF (1.71 MB)
387 downloads
Spanish Text (219.73 KB)
110 downloads
Published
2023-07-28
ISSN
Date
2023-07-28
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This is the first edition of the Economic Update for Equatorial Guinea. This report presents recent economic developments in Equatorial Guinea as well as the medium-term economic outlook and risks (Chapter 1), followed by a detailed exploration of a specific topic (Chapter 2). This edition focuses on fuel subsidies and advises on fuel subsidy reform options and mitigation measures by drawing on lessons from international experience. The objectives of the Equatorial Guinea Economic Update are to: (i) strengthen the analytical underpinnings of the policy dialogue; and (ii) contribute to an informed debate on policy options to enhance macroeconomic management and development outcomes.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2023. Equatorial Guinea Economic Update, 1st Edition: Reforming Fossil Fuel Subsidies. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/40105 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
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) World Bank
    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, 10th Edition, June 2023
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-06-26) World Bank
    This is the tenth 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, contain food inflation, and sustain economic recovery. The second chapter discusses fossil fuel subsidies, which represent a significant fiscal burden in the Republic of Congo.
  • Publication
    Equatorial Guinea Economic Update, 2nd Edition
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-29) World Bank
    This is the second edition of the Economic Update for Equatorial Guinea. This World Bank report presents recent economic developments in Equatorial Guinea, the medium-term economic outlook and risks as well as structural challenges (Chapter 1), followed by a detailed exploration of a specific topic (Chapter 2). This edition focuses on fiscal instruments for sustainable forestry, examining the current socio-economic context of forest policy in Equatorial Guinea. In particular, it discusses the role and current use of forest-related fiscal instruments, and proposes options and trade-offs in the design of forest related fiscal policy reforms to adequately capture resource rents, promote forest based value-addition and employment, mitigate deforestation and forest degradation. The objectives of the Equatorial Guinea Economic Update are to: (i) strengthen the analytical underpinnings of the policy dialogue; and (ii) contribute to an informed debate on policy options to enhance macroeconomic management and development outcomes.
  • Publication
    Equatorial Guinea Economic Update 2025: Managing Equatorial Guinea’s Wealth for Sustainable Growth and Development
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-08-26) World Bank
    This is the third edition of the Economic Update for Equatorial Guinea. This World Bank report presents recent economic developments in Equatorial Guinea as well as the medium-term economic outlook and risks as well as structural challenges (Chapter 1), followed by a detailed exploration of a specific topic (Chapter 2). This edition provides policy options to maximize Equatorial Guinea’s forest wealth in order to promote sustainable growth. In particular, it discusses measurements of national wealth and links with indicators such as Gross Domestic Product. It examines Equatorial Guinea’s asset portfolio including physical, human and natural capital and how these could shape development in the country, with a focus on forest ecosystem services accounts. The chapter emphasizes the importance of comprehensive wealth accounting, including forest ecosystem, and provides insights on how to sustainably use and leverage the country’s rich forest assets.
  • Publication
    South Africa Economic Update, November 2011
    (Washington, DC, 2011-11) World Bank
    The global financial roller coaster, with the Euro zone as its lead car, has hit economic prospects across the globe. The South African economy, with its close links to the world economy, has suffered, too, resulting in weakened growth prospects, lower fiscal revenues, lower and more volatile valuation of the rand, and dampened external financing. This further compounds the policy challenges facing the authorities, on top of their preoccupation with unyielding unemployment, which requires higher and more inclusive economic growth. Policymaking is also conditioned by a growing recognition that future growth needs to be less carbon-intensive. As elsewhere, opportunities in green economies are viewed with keen interest, as a way of simultaneously targeting a cleaner environment and stimulating innovation, growth, and job creation. While green policies can have large synergies and co-benefits with the growth and employment agenda, they are not a substitute for it. Indeed, such synergies are likely to be mutually enhancing and larger when the growth and environment objectives are being pursued by multiple, well-targeted and coordinated policies.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Bangladesh Development Update, October 2013
    (Washington, DC, 2013-10) World Bank
    Economic performance has remained resilient to global headwinds and disruptive politics in Bangladesh in FY13. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth decelerated for the second year in a row to 6 percent. Disruptions caused by political strife, deepening political tensions relating to the impending political transition and the inadequacies of improvements in the provision of power, gas and infrastructure were the key factors in the growth slowdown. These contributed to weakening investor confidence leading to a 1.2 percent decline in the private investment rate. Recovery in remittance growth contributed to sustaining private consumption growth which combined with a significant rise in public investment and robust increases in exports helped maintain GDP growth above the average 5 percent growth in developing countries in 2013. Growth declined in both the agriculture and service sectors while industrial growth increased slightly. Inflation decelerated but remained high. Annual average inflation declined from 8.7 percent in FY12 to 6.8 percent in FY13. External balances have improved further. The external trade deficit decreased significantly due primarily to an increase in export growth over FY12 and flat import payments. The banking system remains under stress and capital market activities have been weak. Several financial scams and resultant loan defaults in the state-owned commercial banks moved them into a position of insolvency, which needs to be urgently addressed. The most pressing challenges lie in maintaining economic and financial reforms, rebuilding the image of the garment sector, and removing supply bottlenecks. Some structural reforms have moved forward. The International Monetary Fund's extended credit facility is on track with significant progress in strengthening macroeconomic conditions and structural policies under the extended credit facility arrangement. The new value added tax law has moved firmly into the implementation phase; the National Board of Revenue has introduced an online tax registration system; amendments to the Banking Companies Act have been passed and progress is being made in identifying critical weaknesses in the state-owned commercial banks; the FY14 budget introduced revenue reforms such as increasing the corporate profit tax rate on cigarette manufacturing companies and reducing the nominal protection rate to 28.1 percent in FY14 from 28.9 percent in FY13. Removing Bangladesh's favored access to the United States market under the Generalized System of Preferences program may not hurt Bangladesh's garment industry unduly. If the European Union were to suspend Bangladesh's favored access to its markets, Bangladesh could see its total exports fall by as much as 4.1 to 8 percent.
  • Publication
    Democratic Republic of Congo Urbanization Review
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018) World Bank; Ranarifidy, Dina
    The Democratic Republic of Congo has the third largest urban population in sub-Saharan Africa (estimated at 43% in 2016) after South Africa and Nigeria. It is expected to grow at a rate of 4.1% per year, which corresponds to an additional 1 million residents moving to cities every year. If this trend continues, the urban population could double in just 15 years. Thus, with a population of 12 million and a growth rate of 5.1% per year, Kinshasa is poised to become the most populous city in Africa by 2030. Such strong urban growth comes with two main challenges – the need to make cities livable and inclusive by meeting the high demand for social services, infrastructure, education, health, and other basic services; and the need to make cities more productive by addressing the lack of concentrated economic activity. The Urbanization Review of the Democratic Republic of Congo argues that the country is urbanizing at different rates and identifies five regions (East, South, Central, West and Congo Basin) that present specific challenges and opportunities. The Urbanization Review proposes policy options based on three sets of instruments, known as the three 'I's – Institutions, Infrastructures and Interventions – to help each region respond to its specific needs while reaping the benefits of economic agglomeration The Democratic Republic of the Congo is at a crossroads. The recent decline in commodity prices could constitute an opportunity for the country to diversify its economy and invest in the manufacturing sector. Now is an opportune time for Congolese decision-makers to invest in cities that can lead the country's structural transformation and facilitate greater integration with African and global markets. Such action would position the country well on the path to emergence.
  • Publication
    Firm-Level Technology Adoption in Vietnam
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-03) Comin, Diego; Cirera, Xavier; Lee, Kyung Min; Cruz, Marcio; Soares Martins-Neto, Antonio
    This paper describes the results of a new firm survey to measure technology use and adoption implemented prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam. It analyzes the use and adoption of technology among Vietnamese firms and identifies some of the key barriers to adoption and diffusion. The analysis offers new and important stylized facts on firm-level use of technologies. First, although access to the internet is almost universal in Vietnam, firms had low digital readiness to face the COVID-19 pandemic; and the share of establishments with their own website, social media, and cloud computing is still small. Second, the use of Industry 4.0 technologies is incipient. Third, the technology gap with the use of frontier technologies in some general business functions, such as quality control, production planning, sales, and sourcing and procurement, is large. Fourth, the manufacturing sector faces the largest technological gap, larger than services and agricultural firms. The analysis of the main barriers and drivers to technology adoption and use shows the importance of good management quality for technology adoption, and that there is a technology premium associated with exporting activities. Finally, the analysis also shows that firms are largely unaware of the available public policy support for technology upgrading.
  • Publication
    Vietnam
    (World Bank, Hanoi, 2020-05-01) World Bank
    Following from Vietnam’s ratification of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in late 2018 and its effectiveness from January 2019, and the European Parliament’s recent approval of the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and its subsequent planned ratification by the National Assembly in May 2020, Vietnam has further demonstrated its determination to be a modern, competitive, open economy. As the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) crisis has clearly shown, diversified markets and supply chains will be key in the future global context to managing the risk of disruptions in trade and in supply chains due to changing trade relationships, climate change, natural disasters, and disease outbreaks. In those regards, Vietnam is in a stronger position than most countries in the region. The benefits of globalization are increasingly being debated and questioned. However, in the case of Vietnam, the benefits have been clear in terms of high and consistent economic growth and a large reduction in poverty levels. As Vietnam moves to ratify and implement a new generation of free trade agreements (FTAs), such as the CPTPP and EVFTA, it is important to clearly demonstrate, in a transparent manner, the economic gains and distributional impacts (such as sectoral and poverty) from joining these FTAs. In the meantime, it is crucial to highlight the legal gaps that must be addressed to ensure that national laws and regulations are in compliance with Vietnam’s obligations under these FTAs. Readiness to implement this new generation of FTAs at both the national and subnational level is important to ensure that the country maximizes the full economic benefits in terms of trade and investment. This report explores the issues of globalization and the integration of Vietnam into the global economy, particularly through implementation of the EVFTA.
  • Publication
    Strengthening Competitiveness In Bangladesh—Thematic Assessment
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2016-07-15) Kathuria, Sanjay; Malouche, Mariem Mezghenni; Kathuria, Sanjay; Malouche, Mariem Mezghenni
    This is volume 2 of a three-volume publication on Bangladesh’s trade prospects. Bangladesh’s ambition is to build on its very solid growth and poverty reduction achievements, and accelerate growth to become a middle income country by 2021, and share prosperity more widely amongst its citizens. This includes one of its greatest development challenges: to provide gainful employment to the over 2 million people that will join the labor force each year over the next decade. Moreover, only 54.1 million of its 94 million working age people are employed. Bangladesh needs to use its labor endowment even more intensively to increase growth and, in turn, to absorb the incoming labor. The Diagnostic Trade Integration Study identifies the following actions centered around four pillars to sustain and accelerate export growth: (1) breaking into new markets through a) better trade logistics to reduce delivery lags ; as world markets become more competitive and newer products demand shorter lead times, to generate new sources of competitiveness and thereby enable market diversification; and b) better exploitation of regional trading opportunities in nearby growing and dynamic markets, especially East and South Asia; (2) breaking into new products through a) more neutral and rational trade policy and taxation and bonded warehouse schemes; b) concerted efforts to spur domestic investment and attract foreign direct investment, to contribute to export promotion and diversification, including by easing the energy and land constraints; and c) strategic development and promotion of services trade; (3) improving worker and consumer welfare by a) improving skills and literacy; b) implementing labor and work safety guidelines; and c) making safety nets more effective in dealing with trade shocks; and (4) building a supportive environment, including a) sustaining sound macroeconomic fundamentals; and b) strengthening the institutional capacity for strategic policy making aimed at the objective of international competitiveness to help bring focus and coherence to the government’s reform efforts. This second volume provides in-depth analysis across seven cross-cutting themes that underpin most of the findings of pillars 1 and 2 above.