The central banks of the franc zone, BCEAO and BEAC, published their traditional reports on monetary governance at the end of December 2021. According to these reports, economic growth forecasts in 2022 stand respectively at 6.4% for the WAEMU zone and 3.7% for the CEMAC zone.

In the CEMAC zone, economies that are still largely dependent on oil have been relatively affected by the pandemic and the economic crisis it has caused. GDP only grew by 1.9% in 2021. BEAC economists predict a stabilization of growth, around 2 to 3%, over the next three years. Thus, if real economic activity in the area is expected to grow by 3.7% in 2022, we should expect a drop of just over one point (2.6% growth) in 2023, before a slight increase to 3.2% in 2024.

Within the WAEMU, the upward trend in economic growth should be favored by the global recovery and the implementation by member states of their recovery plan. If at the regional level, growth is estimated at 6.1% at the end of 2021, countries such as Benin, Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire have fared much better than the others with respectively 7%, 7.1% and 6.5% growth estimated at the end of 2021.