Economy

In today’s world, African governments face the challenge of not only providing basic services for their populations but also improving the quality of those services. However, resource constraints often make it difficult to provide high-quality services, creating a delicate balance between population growth, fiscal limitations and the pursuit of quality. This mission requires careful consideration and innovative solutions, especially in countries like Senegal. The Dilemma of Unmet S ...

L'intégration de l'Intelligence Artificielle (IA) en Afrique laisse entrevoir des perspectives prometteuses et pose des défis substantiels. Si certains pays du continent se distinguent par leur engagement et leurs avancées dans la préparation à l'adoption de l'IA, d'autres font face à des obstacles majeurs, tels que les inégalités structurelles et les fractures numériques. Cette disparité souligne la nécessité d'une approche inclusive et holistique pour garantir que tous ...

En 2023, et selon le think tank américain « Atlantic Council », 114 pays ont engagé une réflexion sur La Monnaie numérique de banque centrale (MNBC). Cette réflexion concerne la MNBC de gros, visant à repenser l’interbancarité et la MNBC de détail, celle que la Chine développe avec un succès certain depuis 2014 avec son e yuan, réservé aujourd’hui au seul marché intérieur chinois, en attendant mieux. L’objet de ce Policy Brief est, tout d’abord, de rappeler que les MNB ...

As the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) enters its fifth year, the rules of origin for trade in goods are still being finalised, but the institutional architecture is nearly complete with increased capacity, technical committees and new supporting instruments. Despite this progress in AfCFTA ‘policy supply’, meaningful trade under the AfCFTA is still to begin. For this to happen, there must be ‘policy demand’ from the private sector to use the agreement’s range of protoc ...

L'idée d'un effritement de la classe moyenne marocaine est répandue, suggérant un glissement vers une classe aisée toujours plus riche et des classes plus pauvres ce qui sous-entend une augmentation de la polarisation dans la société. Cependant, aucune étude basée sur des données n'a été menée pour confirmer cette perception. Notre étude comble ce vide en analysant l'évolution de la classe moyenne entre 2012 et 2019. En utilisant la définition opérationnelle de Abdelkhalek (2014) de ...

The issue of environmental degradation represents a significant global challenge. It manifests in various forms, including physical alterations such as air pollution, ozone depletion, climate change, marine pollution and biodiversity loss. These changes are proven to be linked to human activities, such as energy production and consumption, tourism and agriculture. Additionally, factors like population growth and health and safety concerns contribute to environmental decline. Is Gro ...

This article was originally published on tandfonline.com   This article explores the intricate relationship between economic growth and unemployment across multiple African countries, with a focus on estimating the Okun’s coefficient. Data from the International Labour Office (ILO) and the World Bank’s databases for 39 African nations were utilised. Two distinct methodological approaches, first differences and the Hodrick-Prescott (HP) filter, were employed to assess result robust ...

This paper aims to quantify the economic loss from the earthquake that hit Morocco on September 8, 2023, and to evaluate the impact of the five-year reconstruction plan, that will account for roughly 8.5% of GDP. Given the geographically concentrated location of the earthquake, which hit some provinces in the central part of Morocco, the methodology used relies on an inter- province inter-industry Input-Output (IIO) table for Morocco. Assuming that the resources to be spent on infra ...

L’Agence française de développement (AFD) et le Policy Center for the New South (PCNS) ont réuni le  17 avril dans les locaux du PCNS, au campus de l’Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique (UM6P) de Rabat, les acteurs du partenariat public-privé dans le secteur de la formation professionnelle. Cet évènement a permis de mettre en lumière le modèle marocain de partenariat public-privé en la matière, notamment les Instituts de formation à gestion déléguée (IGD). Cet évènement s’est ten ...

The Policy Center for the New South and the Atlantic Council Africa Center have jointly released a report on “The Reform of the Global Financial Architecture: Toward a System that Delivers for the South,” by Otaviano Canuto, Hafez Ghanem, Youssef El Jai, and Stéphane Le Bouder. This report issues specific and urgent calls for reform, including more representative global governance, increasing the World Bank’s operational and financial capacity, prioritizing programs that would inte ...

The writing of this Report started in november 2023 and benefited during six months from the quality of discussions in the Policy center. Paul Isbel, Professor at UM6P, was a relentless proofreader who generously brought his outstanding competence in economy and political economy. Stephen Gardner went beyond his role as linguistic proofreader and showed an admirable understanding of the substance at stake. Under the direct supervision of Professor Abdelaziz Aitali, the Economic Depa ...

L'émergence fulgurante de l'intelligence artificielle (IA) représente un phénomène mondial, marqué par une croissance exponentielle des publications et des investissements massifs atteignant 189,6 milliards USD en 2021, contre environ 14,7 milliards en 2013. Cette accélération suscite une prise de conscience accrue de la nécessité pressante de mettre en place une gouvernance efficace de l'IA, comme en témoigne l'augmentation significative du nombre de projets de loi dédiés, passant ...

The Internaional Monetary Fund World Economic Outlook, issued on April 16, projected China’s economic growth rate at 4.6% and 4.1% for, respectively, 2024 and 2025. In 2023, after China’s economic reopening with the end of the ‘zero-COVID’ policy, the rate was 5.2%, above the official target of 5% (Figure 1). For 2024, the official target has been set at 5% again. Notwithstanding the challenges we discuss here, China’s macroeconomic performance in the first quarter of 2024 has been ...

Prior to her visit to China on April 4—her second in nine months—Janet Yellen, United States Secretary of the Treasury, sent a message demanding that the country should not flood the world with cheap exports of clean energy. This would “distort global markets and harm workers abroad,” she said. According to a senior U.S. Treasury official, China’s excess industrial capacity and the government support that has fueled it were subject of discussion during her meeting with Chinese Premi ...

Un proverbe africain dit, seul on va plus vite ; ensemble on va plus loin. C’est dans cet esprit de l’action et du leadership collectifs que s’insère l’initiative de l’Afrique atlantique initiée par le Maroc et qui vise la création des conditions nécessaires pour la construction d’une région Afrique/Atlantique stable, prospère et tournée vers la mer. À cette première initiative s’est ajoutée une deuxième, celle de la facilitation de l’accès à la mer aux pays du Sahel, e ...

Breaking Bonds, Forging Alliances On January 28, 2024, the military leaders of Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso declared their joint intention to exit the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), presenting three substantial criticisms against the regional organization. Their foremost claimed grievance was that ECOWAS has departed from its foundational vision, implying that foreign influences have diverted the regional organization from its essential values to the detriment ...

This paper was originally published on tandfonline.com   Unemployment hysteresis, where joblessness persists even after economic improvement, reveals the lasting impact of initial downturns. We delve into this puzzle in Morocco from 1999Q1 to 2019Q3, using four methods to examine the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU) time series for unit root causes. Across all methods, we consistently find a hysteresis effect. We also explore how inflation and NAIRU interact ...

En utilisant des données, disponibles, provenant des recensements et enquêtes réalisés par le Haut- commissariat au plan (HCP), le ministère de la Santé, et l’Observatoire national du développent humain (ONDH), cet article se propose d’étudier les changements dans le temps connus par la fécondité au Maroc. La tendance qui se dégage de l’évolution récente de ce phénomène est qu’il enregistre, depuis 2010, une sorte de stagnation, voire une légère reprise. Une tendanc ...

Low-carbon hydrogen is a potential contributor to the goals defined in the Paris Agreement, i.e. limiting the increase in the global average temperature to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. The transformation of hydrogen production is a part of this effort, as current production methods in the hydrogen industry are carbon-intensive. To achieve net-zero scenarios, hydrogen production and consumption will need to change. Creating a pipeline of projects plays a central role in drivin ...

Based on observable facts, this policy paper explores some of the less- acknowledged yet critically important ways in which artificial intelligence (AI) may affect the public sector and its role. Our focus is on those areas where AI's influence might be understated currently, but where it has substantial implications for future government policies and actions. We identify four main areas of impact that could redefine the public sector role, require new answers from it, or both. The ...

Le 20 février 2024, le Policy Center for the New South et la Banque mondiale ont mis à profit  l’organisation d’un événement pour échanger sur les résultats d'une récente évaluation du partenariat entre le Royaume et l’institution de Bretton Woods . Cette rencontre a été l’occasion de revenir sur les accomplissements, les défis rencontrés et les opportunités à venir afin d’orienter la collaboration future entre les deux parties. Au cours des 15 dernières années, le Maroc et la Banq ...

This paper was originally published on sciencedirect.com   Our study aims to investigate the role of financial inclusion as a mediator in the relationship between contextual factors and entrepreneurial willingness in Africa. While previous research has emphasized the importance of improving institutional and contextual factors to foster entrepreneurship, our study adds a new dimension by highlighting the critical need for tailored financial services that can cater to the unique ne ...

This blog was originally published on huawei.com   What impact do you think ICT and connectivity can have in fighting global poverty? At the World Bank we had a very enthusiastic and optimistic view on the potential impact of technology and ICT. Brazil had a cash transfer program for poorer families where households received money directly from the government, regardless of whether they had bank accounts. The money was not distributed by hand but done electronically: the governme ...

This paper examines Brazil's economic growth patterns over the last three decades and identifies a missed opportunity for the country to attain high-income status by the mid-2010s. Instead, Brazil has suffered from low productivity growth, and has made little progress in transforming its production and export structures in favor of higher value-added activities. This premature de-industrialization makes it challenging for Brazil to transition from its long- standing upper-middle-inc ...

Heightened geopolitical rivalry has greatly complicated the challenges facing the Global South. Countries identifying with the Global South now have to deal with the long-standing problem of promoting changes in the current international political and economic system to better serve their development needs, while navigating the geopolitically driven fragmentation of trade and investment flows. Moreover, the strategic approaches that could be adopted to deal with those challenges are ...

When countries face external financial shocks, they must rely on financial buffers to counter such shocks. The global financial safety net is the set of institutions and arrangements that provide lines of defense for economies against such shocks. From any individual country standpoint, there are three lines of defense in their external financial safety nets: international reserves, pooled resources (swap lines and plurilateral financing arrangements), and the International Monetar ...

Greater female participation in the labor market and in international trade have been recognized as important drivers for economic growth and essential targets in the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, achieving both targets simultaneously will be difficult, if not impossible, in most Middle East and North African (MENA) countries without additional policies to eliminate the remarkably high levels of gender inequality in the labor market. I ...

Dans ce rapport, nous proposons d’utiliser une nouvelle approche pour analyser les structures productives au Maroc. Nous appliquons les outils de la théorie des réseaux aux tableaux des échanges inter-industriels de l'économie marocaine. Nos résultats montrent que le réseau national de production présente des caractéristiques intuitives dans le sens qu’elles sont liées aux processus de production. La structure de ce réseau peut être représentée sous la forme d'un papillon, avec les ...

Councilwoman Roxy Ndebumadu is a technology entrepreneur, and special advisor on beneficial AI, online safety and emerging technology. As a two term-elected official, she represents the City of Bowie, the fifth largest city in Maryland. She is also a 2023 alumna of the Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders program. Learn more about her here. Amidst the churning tides of globalization, in which currents of tradition meet the winds of change, there is a call for a new international c ...

Depuis 2016, on assiste à une dynamique de création de fonds souverains africains. En 2023, on recense 21 pays et 24 fonds souverains. Sur la seule période 2016-23, celle de la deuxième vague, huit pays vont se doter d’un premier fonds souverain, et d’un deuxième, dans le cas du Maroc, en 2022. Cette étude rappelle tout d’abord l’historique d’une création qui commence, dès 1994, au Botswana, avec le Pula Fund, précisant pour chacun des 24 fonds leur date de création, leur ...

En octobre 2023, la Chine a organisé le 3ème forum de l'Initiative « Ceinture et Route ». Le choix de la date n’était pas anodin, étant donné qu’elle coïncidait avec la célébration du 10ème anniversaire de l'Initiative. Une initiative aux multiples composantes L’Initiative « Ceinture et Route », également connue sous l’acronyme BRI (Belt and Road Initiative), a été initialement conçue pour permettre à la Chine de renforcer ses liens commerciaux avec les Etats partenaires de son I ...

This Paper was originally published on onlinelibrary.wiley.com This study aimed to unveil the evolving landscape of digital financial inclusion in African countries during the post-COVID-19 era. We examined factors influencing the access and usage of digital financial services and identified population segments facing increased exclusion due to the digital divide. First, by applying principal component analysis to data collected at the country level from 39 African countries in 201 ...

يتفحص هذا الموجز السياسي البحث الاقتصادي في إفريقيا بناءً على معطيات من منصة ورقات بحث في الاقتصاد. ويدرس إنتاجية الباحثين المنتسبين إلى المؤسسات الإفريقية، حيث أن بعضها غزير الإنتاج، بينما يظل المعدل الملاحظ على المستوى القاري أقل من المعايير الدولية. ونتيجة لذلك، لا تزال مساهمة إفريقيا في البحوث الاقتصادية العالمية متواضعة على الرغم من التحديات الاقتصادية الكبيرة التي تواجهها القارة. ثم تتناول الورقة مواضيع البحث الغالبة من خلال تحليل شفرات دراسات اقتصادية جديدة ومجلة الأدبيات الا ...

Morocco is positioned as a new global hub of the automotive industry in an increasingly volatile international context, with various emerging countries competing intensively to gain the best returns on openness and globalization. The Moroccan automotive industry’s recent performance shows it to be the most dynamic sector in the economy: from 2014 to 2019, value-added in the automotive sector increased by almost 70% while the overall national value-added increased by only 15%. In the ...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the name given to the broad spectrum of technologies by which machines can perceive, interpret, learn, and act by imitating human cognitive abilities. Automation was created to better fulfill repetitive tasks, increasing productivity. AI, with its impressive rate of evolution, can produce new content: texts, images, new computational codes, possibly medical diagnoses, interpretations of data, and so on. It is no coincidence that an AI-based technolog ...

The annual World Economic Forum took place in Davos, Switzerland, from January 15-19. Every year for 54 years, a global business elite has traveled there, whether to interact with customers and suppliers, with intellectual leaders on broad topics or, in an informal environment, with the representatives of governments and multilateral authorities who attend. Nothing is deliberated, of course, but over time the forum has established a reputation as a stage from which announcements ar ...

- Brazil’s latest tax reform will replace five taxes on consumption with one single VAT to promote greater efficiency and sectoral isonomy. - Forecasts produced by a detailed ICGE model point to sizeable gains in GDP exceeding 4% in the long run, even if spatially unequal. - Exceptions to the rules reduce potential benefits in efficiency terms. - Policies meant to promote regional development and close the gap deepened by the reform partially achieve their goal at the expense of ...

  This Paper was originally published on bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com   As a specific driver for the transformation of education systems in Morocco, inclusive education is a process that aims to reduce the exclusion of children with disabilities. Indeed, few studies have analysed the exclusion factors that cause children with disabilities not to pursue their education. Based on this, the present paper explores the spatial effect of factors related to accessibility and sc ...

The Africa Economic Symposium (AES) is the Policy Center for the New South’s new major conference, alongside the renowned Atlantic Dialogues and the African Peace and Security Annual Conference (APSACO). AES aspires to be a continent-wide annual gathering of prominent economists, policymakers, and academics, which will bring together global and continental perspectives on the issues shaping the future of Africa’s economic development. The global economy is going through a period of ...

La pandémie de la Covid-19 était venue contribuer au ralentissement de la cadence des investissements chinois dans le cadre de l’Initiative Ceinture et Route « Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) ». Entamée dès 2016, cette tendance à la baisse a été accentuée par les tensions géopolitiques et les problèmes internes qui ont affecté l'économie chinoise. Nonobstant ces contre-temps, la Chine a atteint l’un de ses plus grands objectifs : étendre son influence à travers le monde. À l’occasion ...

The debate on global value chains (GVCs) has emphasized countries’ contributions to value-added creation. From an intercountry perspective, a new body of research is addingto this debate by studying how subnational regions contribute to the indicators in specific countries. Proper assessment of economic contributions is essential for designing incentive policies. This paper analyzes the role played by the main trading partners of Moroccan regions in local value chains. We use input- ...

A 2023 United Nations progress report (UN, 2023) showed that, of the 169 targets that make up the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), only 15% are on track, and progress on many has either stalled or regressed. The Water-Energy-Food nexus approach has highlighted the utmost importance of understanding the interconnections between systems in order to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs. In this policy brief, we use the lessons learned from the water sector through a case study f ...

This paper was originally published on The South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) In order for Africa to raise living standards, create employment for youth and diversify exports, it must industrialise. Until recently, sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries made limited progress in manufacturing value addition and employment, mirroring the de-industrialisation trend seen in many developing countries. To propel industrialisation, SSA countries should adopt flexible st ...

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched by Xi Jinping, passed its tenth anniversary in 2023. It has entered a third phase. The initiative added a label to China’s financing and construction of infrastructure abroad, which had already totaled more than $400 billion in the previous 10 years. In addition to the use of investment projects as part of Chinese ‘soft power’, the BRI has served to increase levels of usage of the country’s excess installed capacity. China’s economic re ...