The African Development Bank Group’s (www.AfDB.org) Country Report 2024 forecasts vigorous economic activity for Madagascar, with expected growth of 4.5 percent in 2024, climbing to 5.3 percent in 2025. Growth on the Grande Île was 4.4 percent in 2023, compared with 4.3 percent in 2022.

The report, entitled “Driving change in Madagascar by reforming the global financial architecture”, was published in Antananarivo by the Bank’s Country Office in conjunction with the government of Madagascar, on Wednesday 31 July 2024. Government representatives, including the Minister of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Max Andonirina Fontaine, the chief of staff of the Minister of the Economy and Finance, Florence Andrianaivohery and others from the public authorities, the private sector, civil society and development partners of the Grande Île, all contributed to wide-ranging and constructive discussions around the report.

Kevin Chika Urama, Chief Economist and Vice-President of the African Development Bank Group, responsible for Economic Governance and Knowledge Management, spoke by video message. He emphasised the importance of country reports, which shed light on national policies and feed into political dialogue between the authorities and the private sector and development partners on structural transformation. He also highlighted the necessity of reforming the global financial architecture to contribute to faster structural change in Madagascar.

Ms Andrianaivohery, for her part, commented that a fundamental reform of the global financial architecture could help her country to take advantage of new opportunities by diversifying the available funding sources, improving lending conditions and making it easier to access innovative financing, to accelerate its development.

“The theme of the Country Report 2024 is in line with the objective of the Bank’s Country Strategy Document 2022-2026 for Madagascar, which is to speed up the structural transformation of the economy, backed by industrialization to create decent, green jobs,” commented Adam Amoumoun, the Bank’s Country Manager for Madagascar. “The mid-term review of the Country Strategy Document, which took place in May 2024, showed that the results achieved were satisfactory. The African Development Bank will build on these over the remaining period of the strategy to contribute to accelerating the country’s structural transformation,” he emphasised.

Minister Max Fontaine stressed that Madagascar still has significant climate funding needs and it is important for the Bank to support the country in preparing projects and mobilizing finance from green funds.

Following the presentation of the report by the Bank’s Country Economist for Madagascar, Hamaciré Dicko, the discussions turned to macroeconomic performance and prospects, tools for promoting strong and resilient growth, progress on the structural transformation of Madagascar and reforms of the global financial architecture.

The Director of Monitoring and Evaluation at the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, Marilys Victoire Razakamanana, who acted as moderator, summarized the discussions with an emphasis on the need to increase climate funding for Madagascar.

On 31 July 2024, the African Development Bank Group’s active portfolio in Madagascar comprised 18 operations, amounting to a total of USD 1.16 billion.