The annual African Economic Outlook (AEO) monitors the continent’s state of affairs using a collaborative approach. The AEO assesses the recent economic and social situation in Africa, projects likely developments for the near future and explores a special theme on the structure of African economies. The AEO 2017, the 16th edition, examines entrepreneurship and industrialisation in Africa. The report results from a unique partnership between three international organisations: the African Development Bank, the OECD Development Centre and the United Nations Development Programme.

The 16th edition of the African Economic Outlook highlights the fact that Africa’s economic performance is reflecting the perils of the global economy. The region’s real GDP growth slowed down to 2.2% in 2016, mainly due to the continued fall in commodity prices and weak global economic growth. East Africa was the fastest growing region at 5.3% real GDP growth, followed by North Africa at 3%. Growth in other regions was anaemic, ranging from a low of 0.4% in West Africa, dragged down by the recession in Nigeria, to 1.1% in Southern Africa, with South Africa, the region’s largest economy, posting only 0.3% growth.

The African Economic Outlook (AEO) 2017 shows that the continent’s performance was uneven in 2016 in regard to economic, social and governance indicators, but prospects are favourable for 2017 and 2018. This year’s edition of the AEO looks closely at how African entrepreneurs can thus accelerate the continent’s industrialisation to change the course of development and discusses the policies necessary to foster more sustainable and inclusive growth.

The African Economic Outlook includes a set of statistical tables of indicators related to economic and social development in Africa. The African Development Bank compiled Tables 1-19 and 21 and the OECD Development Centre Tables 20 and 22-26 for the purposes of informing the analyses contained within this volume. What follows is a complete list of indicators contained in each table, as well as some definitions of concepts and explanations of methodologies used to create these data. The aggregate figures for Africa, when reported, do not include countries whose data are unavailable. Figures are reported on a calendaryear basis, except in Table 4 and except for the macroeconomic indicators for Egypt and Eritrea in Tables 1-6 that are reported for years starting in July and ending in June.