The 23rd ordinary session of Conference of Heads of State and Government for the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) has in ended Ivoire Abidjan under the chairmanship of the Ivorian Head of State Alassane Ouattara with council of Ministers highlighting growth decline for 2022.
At the end of this meeting, the President of the Council of Ministers of WAEMU, Sani Yaya, who presented the economic situation of WAEMU in 2022 after the closed session of heads of state, indicated that the growth rate of the Union’s Domestic Product (GDP) is estimated at 5.7% in 2022, after 6.1% in 2021.
He also revealed that the inflation rate is estimated at 7.5% in 2022 against 3.6% in 2021, mainly due to the persistence of tensions on the prices of food and oil products as well as on the posts of the functions, housing and transportation.
Continuing, Mr. Sani said that the Union’s budget deficit would stand at 6.1% in 2022 against 5.5% of GDP in 2021.
” The Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) has also maintained its support to the Member States of the Union in the search for funds for the execution of their economic development projects, by renewing the two resource mobilization initiatives on the regional financial market launched in 2021, namely the Recovery Bonds and the Support and Resilience Bonds,” added the President of the WAEMU Council of Ministers.
Thus, he pointed out that the WAEMU member states were able to raise respectively through these two instruments, amounts of $2.8 billion and $4.772 billion, at the end of October 2022.
Overall, Mr. Sani said that the resources mobilized by the States amounted to 6.683.8 billion over the first ten months of 2022.
In addition, Mr. Sani, who reviewed several other actions carried out within WAEMU in 2022, was satisfied with the implementation of community reforms whose average implementation rate is 75.3 %.
”The economic outlook for 2023 is favorable” (President Alassane Ouattara expressed). Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, who chaired this WAEMU meeting, said in a speech that the Union’s economic prospects for the year 2023 are”conducive” to growth. “The outlook for 2023 is favorable in terms of growth since we envisage a growth rate above 7.3%. In terms of security, despite the efforts of our respective countries, the situation remains worrying and forces our States to increase investments in the field of defense and security to the detriment of certain crucial development projects deplored”, he adds.
Furthermore, President Alassane Ouattara announced that President of the Niger Republic, Mohamed Bazoum had been chosen “unanimously” by the Heads of State to chair the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Union. This 23rd conference of heads of state and government of UEMOA recorded, in addition to the Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, the presence of his counterpart Macky Sall (Senegal) and Umaro Embalo Sissoko (Guinea Bissau) as well as heads of government and ministers from other EU countries.
