WASHINGTON, JUNE 19, 2025 - The CEMAC region experienced stronger growth in 2024, growing by 3.0%, up from 2.0% in 2023. However, as highlighted by the 8th CEMAC Economic Barometer, growth remains modest and strongly dependent on oil and other commodities. These sectors do not create sufficient jobs for the region's fast-growing population, leaving many youths unemployed.
The semi-annual report discusses the recent economic situation in the CEMAC region and presents a brief analysis for each country. It shows that, in 2024, the region's reserves, fiscal position, and trade balance deteriorated due to lower oil prices, highlighting CEMAC's high exposure to volatile hydrocarbon markets, as oil makes up over two-thirds of total goods exported. Inflationary pressures continued to gradually abate, but high unemployment and lack of growth and economic opportunities are still causing poverty to rise. A third of CEMAC's population is estimated to live in extreme poverty by 2024, translating to about 22 million people living with less than US$2.15 per day (in 2017 purchasing power parity).
As highlighted in the report, regional growth is projected to remain slow at 2.9% in 2025-2027. The CEMAC region is endowed with abundant mineral, hydrocarbon, timber, and agricultural resources. Together with a young population and high degree of urbanization, these factors could be the basis for accelerated economic growth and job creation if reforms were adopted and implemented to strengthen infrastructure and create a more appealing environment for private sector investment. Countries in the region face important risks, including global trade shocks, subdued demand for commodities, cuts in development aid, high debt servicing costs and other strong spending pressures.
"To foster more robust growth, create more jobs, develop intra-regional and global trade, and lift more people out of poverty, CEMAC countries need to create better conditions for local firms to grow, invest and hire more people, and expand their exports," says Robert Utz, World Bank Lead Economist for CEMAC and lead author of the report.
"It would be essential for CEMAC countries to accelerate reforms foreseen in the regional economic plans, including CEMAC's Economic and Financial Reform Program (PREF-CEMAC II) and the upcoming Regional Economic Program," says Cheick Fantamady Kanté, World Bank Division Director for Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Central African Republic, and Equatorial Guinea.
As CEMAC navigates an uncertain global trade and financing environment, accelerating reforms to make the most of natural resources, strengthening public financial management, creating better conditions for firms and supporting the most vulnerable will be crucial to secure a stronger development path and benefit all people in the region.
Download the CEMAC Economic Barometer in English, French, and Spanish.
