African Economic Outlook 2007 - Press Conference

The press conference marking the launch of the joint African Development Bank/ OECD Development Centre African Economic Outlook (AEO 2007) will be held at the OECD Forum on the 14th May from 13h45-14h25 in room 2 of the Palais Brogniart, Paris.

Growth in Africa is sustained and expected to remain that way. On current trends, the likely number of Millennium Development Goals to be met by country averages 2.4 out of the 9 in sub-Saharan Africa and 7.4 in Northern Africa.

Economic policies, coherent strategies and good governance make a difference. Good progress has been made recently in strengthening democracy, however freedoms are still limited and corruption remains widespread.

Note: The indicator has been calculated on the basis of 25 countries: Algeria, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

As shown in the above figure, political trouble in Africa (measures on a cross section of 25 of the 31 African countries covered by the AEO 2007) continued to fall in 2006.

Journalists wishing to attend the media presentation on the 14th of May need to register for the OECD Forum in order to gain entry to the Palais Brongniart.

To obtain further information, please contact Colm Foy: colm.foy@oecd.org or Kathryn Bailey: kathryn.bailey@oecd.org.