Madagascar Economic Update, December 2020 : Setting a Course for Recovery

Prior to the pandemic, Madagascar was on sustained recovery path and achieved progress in poverty reduction. The economic revival in the period leading up to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis was supported by political and economic stability, renew...

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Main Author: World Bank
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/726431608065032400/Madagascar-Economic-Update-Setting-a-Course-for-Recovery
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34935
id okr-10986-34935
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-349352021-04-23T14:02:12Z Madagascar Economic Update, December 2020 : Setting a Course for Recovery World Bank ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC RECESSION POVERTY MACROECONOMIC POLICY FINANCIAL STABILITY ECONOMIC OUTLOOK CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT LIVELIHOODS ECONOMIC RECOVERY TOURISM EMPLOYMENT Prior to the pandemic, Madagascar was on sustained recovery path and achieved progress in poverty reduction. The economic revival in the period leading up to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis was supported by political and economic stability, renewed investor confidence, rising integration in key export markets, growing flows of concessional financing and structural reforms. Activity continued to gain strength up until 2019, as public and private sector investments accelerated, while moderate inflation helped support real income and consumer spending. At the same time, budget and current account deficits remained moderate and the currency stabilized in real effective terms. In this context, growth reached 4.4 percent in 2019, its fastest pace in over a decade, with export-oriented sectors such as textiles, mining, and tourism performing particularly well in the run-up to the crisis. Tourism revenues were bolstered by a 19 percent increase in visitor arrivals, reaching a decade high of 375.000. In the primary sector, favorable weather conditions have contributed to a bumper rice harvest and significant gains in agricultural production more generally. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a sudden and deep recession, reversing nearly a decade of prior income per capita gains. The combined impact of global trade disruptions and domestic containment measures is estimated to have resulted in a GDP contraction of -4.2 percent in 2020, similar to that observed during the devastating 2009 constitutional crisis. Considering a pre-crisis projection of 5.2 percent in 2020, this means that income per capita would be 9.4 percent lower than expected at the start of the year, erasing all gains achieved since the return to constitutional order in 2013. On the demand side, a sharp drop in exports was the key driver of the decline in activity, while public consumption and investment played a buffeting role. The COVID-19 crisis was an external shock of unprecedented magnitude. The contraction in global activity in 2020, currently estimated at -4.4 percent, would be by far the most severe and broad-based on records, with output shrinking in more than 90 percent of countries around the world, against 83 percent during the great depression in 1930, and 60 percent during the great recession 2009. In the Euro Area—Madagascar’s largest export destination—output is estimated to contract by 7.4 percent. As the global toll of the pandemic continues to increase, millions of people are suffering from diminished prospects and disrupted livelihoods. In the developing world, falling income per capita in the vast majority of countries will interrupt poverty reduction trends and could tip over more than 100 million people into extreme poverty. 2020-12-16T22:17:50Z 2020-12-16T22:17:50Z 2020-12 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/726431608065032400/Madagascar-Economic-Update-Setting-a-Course-for-Recovery http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34935 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work Economic & Sector Work :: Economic Updates and Modeling Africa Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE) Madagascar
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic ECONOMIC GROWTH
ECONOMIC RECESSION
POVERTY
MACROECONOMIC POLICY
FINANCIAL STABILITY
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
CORONAVIRUS
COVID-19
PANDEMIC IMPACT
LIVELIHOODS
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
TOURISM
EMPLOYMENT
spellingShingle ECONOMIC GROWTH
ECONOMIC RECESSION
POVERTY
MACROECONOMIC POLICY
FINANCIAL STABILITY
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
CORONAVIRUS
COVID-19
PANDEMIC IMPACT
LIVELIHOODS
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
TOURISM
EMPLOYMENT
World Bank
Madagascar Economic Update, December 2020 : Setting a Course for Recovery
geographic_facet Africa
Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE)
Madagascar
description Prior to the pandemic, Madagascar was on sustained recovery path and achieved progress in poverty reduction. The economic revival in the period leading up to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis was supported by political and economic stability, renewed investor confidence, rising integration in key export markets, growing flows of concessional financing and structural reforms. Activity continued to gain strength up until 2019, as public and private sector investments accelerated, while moderate inflation helped support real income and consumer spending. At the same time, budget and current account deficits remained moderate and the currency stabilized in real effective terms. In this context, growth reached 4.4 percent in 2019, its fastest pace in over a decade, with export-oriented sectors such as textiles, mining, and tourism performing particularly well in the run-up to the crisis. Tourism revenues were bolstered by a 19 percent increase in visitor arrivals, reaching a decade high of 375.000. In the primary sector, favorable weather conditions have contributed to a bumper rice harvest and significant gains in agricultural production more generally. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a sudden and deep recession, reversing nearly a decade of prior income per capita gains. The combined impact of global trade disruptions and domestic containment measures is estimated to have resulted in a GDP contraction of -4.2 percent in 2020, similar to that observed during the devastating 2009 constitutional crisis. Considering a pre-crisis projection of 5.2 percent in 2020, this means that income per capita would be 9.4 percent lower than expected at the start of the year, erasing all gains achieved since the return to constitutional order in 2013. On the demand side, a sharp drop in exports was the key driver of the decline in activity, while public consumption and investment played a buffeting role. The COVID-19 crisis was an external shock of unprecedented magnitude. The contraction in global activity in 2020, currently estimated at -4.4 percent, would be by far the most severe and broad-based on records, with output shrinking in more than 90 percent of countries around the world, against 83 percent during the great depression in 1930, and 60 percent during the great recession 2009. In the Euro Area—Madagascar’s largest export destination—output is estimated to contract by 7.4 percent. As the global toll of the pandemic continues to increase, millions of people are suffering from diminished prospects and disrupted livelihoods. In the developing world, falling income per capita in the vast majority of countries will interrupt poverty reduction trends and could tip over more than 100 million people into extreme poverty.
format Report
author World Bank
author_facet World Bank
author_sort World Bank
title Madagascar Economic Update, December 2020 : Setting a Course for Recovery
title_short Madagascar Economic Update, December 2020 : Setting a Course for Recovery
title_full Madagascar Economic Update, December 2020 : Setting a Course for Recovery
title_fullStr Madagascar Economic Update, December 2020 : Setting a Course for Recovery
title_full_unstemmed Madagascar Economic Update, December 2020 : Setting a Course for Recovery
title_sort madagascar economic update, december 2020 : setting a course for recovery
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2020
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/726431608065032400/Madagascar-Economic-Update-Setting-a-Course-for-Recovery
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34935
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