According to the AfDB report released in June 2020, only 15 African countries have foreign currency reserves that cover their import for over five months. These countries either have oil resource or they have small import proportion. The African average is 3.2 months. ‘Countries with low foreign currency reserve will have less room to import medical equipment under the covid19 era’, according to the report.

Top 10 Host Economies, 2019

Source: UNCTAD, 2020

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flow to developed economies shrank by six percent to an estimated USD643 billion from their revised USD683 billion in 2018, according to UNCTAD. FDI remained at a historically low-level, at half of their peak in 2007.

Ethiopia’s exports of goods and services witnessed a moderate growth this financial year. The country shipped two billion dollars of goods until the end of the third quarter of the existing fiscal year, showing a 10Pct growth compared to the same period last year.

Economic growth in sub-Saharan region is projected to contract by 1.6Pct in 2020, according to the World Economic Outlook report published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Fund, which earlier forecasted that the region’s economy would grow by 3.1Pct, changed its previous estimates due to the economic disruption from the spread of the Coronavirus.

The slowdown of manufacturing in China due to the corona virus (COVID-19) outbreak is disrupting world trade and could result in a USDUS50 billion decrease in exports across global value chains, according to a report published by UNCTAD on March 4, 2020. The most affected is the manufacturing sector, especially producers of precision instruments, machinery, automotive and communication equipments.

Iceland has topped the Global Gender Gap Index for the 11th year in a row, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gaps Report published last month. In 2020, the forum surveyed 153 countries. The highest possible score is 1 (total equality) and the lowest score is 0 (total inequality). Economic participation opportunity, educational attainment, health, survival, and political empowerment are factors taken into consideration in calculating the index.

Ethiopia’s economy exhibited a nine percent growth in the past financial year. This is two percentage points higher than the amount registered during 2017/18 fiscal year. The expansion in the economy is attributed to 11Pct growth in services, 3.8Pct in agriculture and 12.6Pct in industrial sectors. The total GDP of the country has reached ETB1.8 trillion during the previous financial year.

The 2018 Corruption Perception Index, published by Transparency International, measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption in 180 countries and territories. The index scores on a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). Accordingly, sub-Saharan Africa is the lowest scoring region on the index, and has failed to translate its anti-corruption commitments into any real progress. A region with stark political and socio-economic contrasts and longstanding challenges, many of its countries struggle with ineffective institutions and weak democratic values, which threaten anticorruption efforts.

In Africa, the number of internet users grew by 116 times since 2000. Currently, more people in Africa use the internet than in Latin America, North America, or the Middle East. At this moment, there are 525 million internet users in Africa, while 447 million people use internet in Latin America and the Caribbean. On the other hand, there are 328 million and 174 million internet users in North America in the Middle East, respectively.

Between 1997 and 2008, average non-tax revenue has been increasing in Africa largely driven by the global commodity price boom. Nevertheless, especially after 2012, non-tax revenue declined sharply due to dropping commodity prices. Despite this, the non-tax revenue collected by African countries reached a staggering USD133 billion in 2017, which is much higher than the USD100 billion the continent reportedly loses annually in the form of illicit financial flows.