The balance of the Union's balance of goods and services stood at -5.0% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2019 against -6.5% in 2018.

According to the Central Bank of West African States (Bceao), which provides the data, this reflects an improvement of 1.5 percentage points, in line with a greater increase in exports of goods and services (+9 .3%) compared to imports (+3.2%), in a context of good performance of gold prices (+15.9%), the Union's leading export product.

In its report on WAEMU's foreign trade in 2019, the central bank indicates that the Union's trade deficit stood at 708.7 billion or 0.8% of GDP in 2019 against 1,886.2 billion or 2.3% of GDP in 2018, reflecting a reduction of 1.5 percentage points. Also, she notes, the rate of coverage of imports by exports stood at 82.9% in 2019, up 4.6 points compared to 2018.

“The degree of trade openness in the Union fell by 0.3 percentage point to 26.5% in 2019, in a context where trade in goods and services (+5.9 %) were less dynamic than the nominal economic growth of the Union (+7.0%)”, notes finally the Bceao.