Is the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (Cemac) becoming less and less petro-dependent? In its 2020 annual report published on January 7, 2022, the BEAC, the region’s central bank, indicates a decline in the share of the oil sector in gross domestic product (GDP).
Indeed, the 162-page document states that the share of the oil sector in regional GDP stood at 13% in 2020, against 18% in 2015. That is a decrease of 5 percentage points in the space of 5 years. For their part, the oil revenues of the six countries of the region (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Chad) amounted to 2.699 billion FCFA in 2020, against 3,936.5 billion in 2019, and 3,775.6 billion in 2015.
In the first quarter of 2020, these countries lost 500 billion FCFA in oil revenues, according to data published in October of the same year by the Central Bank of Central African States (BEAC). All the countries in the region are producers of black gold, with the exception of the Central African Republic which is still in its exploration phase.
