Gabon

While oil has been the driving engine behind Gabon’s economy since independence, the country’s other underground resources have in many ways been equally prominent. The mining sector has traditionally been a major currency earner for Gabon. The country is the world’s fourth-largest producer of manganese, with reserves of 150m tonnes and...

As part of Gabon’s economic growth strategy, the authorities have been looking to accelerate the development of transport infrastructure in recent years as a means to improve national logistics competitiveness and boost development in remote areas of the country. For this reason, public spending on transportation has averaged CFA780bn (€1.2bn...

As is the case in many African countries, Gabon depends heavily on imports for the supply of food staples and other basic products; this is in large part due its over-reliance on the oil and gas sector. Over the years, logistical costs have remained structurally high due to a lack of infrastructure and a persistence of administrative and...

What effect has Gabon’s log export ban had?

Following a sharp drop since mid-2014 in the international price of oil, which is by far Gabon’s biggest source of export and fiscal revenues, the country is in the midst of a significant oil price shock. However, the government is better placed to avoid a pro-cyclical response than in previous oil crises, and the financial sector appears to...

According to the IMF’s 2015 Article IV consultation with Gabon, the early years of the Emerging Gabon Strategic Plan (Plan Stratégique Gabon Emergent, PSGE) proved to be a significant boon for the construction sector. The IMF reported that “high oil revenues funded a scaling up of public investment that helped propel overall growth to nearly 6...