Africa

A brief overview of the market size in Niger, employment statistics in Gabon, and the share of electricity from renewable sources in Morocco: The Kiel Institute’s Africa Monitor is your go-to tool for tracking macroeconomic trends across the continent. The Monitor collates data from public sources and ensures it is always up to date. Its detailed filtering system facilitates precise data searches and tailored visualization. The Africa Monitor will officially be launched at today’s conference “Shaping Africa’s Future: Geopolitics. Business. Sustainability” in Berlin.

A new dataset from the Kiel Institute paints a detailed picture of Africa's government debt for the first time. On average, African countries pay much higher interest rates to foreign bondholders and Chinese lenders than to international financial institutions such as the World Bank. The gap in borrowing conditions has grown over the past 10 years, suggesting substantial cross-creditor subsidies.

Africa’s female entrepreneurs could outperform their male counterparts, with improved access to formal funding. They already benefit enormously from improved funding through supplier credits. While funding typically refers to formal financial sources, such as bank credit, researchers from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and the University of Ghana have revealed how this alternative source of credit, directly provided by suppliers, is particularly useful in narrowing the productivity gap.