L'économie africaine 2026: English version of Introduction & 1st Chapter

Year on year since 2020, L’Économie Africaine has established itself as an essential snapshot of the continent’s major challenges, offering nuanced, data-driven analysis unfettered by accepted ideas. In this seventh edition, La Découverte and the Agence française de développement (AFD) (French Development Agency) provide an even deeper analysis of Africa’s place in a shifting global order.

Clearly, what the 2000s promised—an Africa free from conflict, buoyed by the simultaneous rise of North and South Africa, attracting private capital, and reaping a demographic dividend—has not come to pass. Things did not unfold as expected, and as new geopolitical, macroeconomic, and environmental upheavals emerge across the globe, the continent’s transition remains far from complete.

In 2025, amid heightened global tensions, Africa exhibited macroeconomic resilience: Growth held steady and even accelerated compared to 2024, reaching approximately 4%, whereas average global growth slowed to around 3% according to the IMF. Given that the continent’s integration into global value chains is still modest, trade tensions have had only a limited impact on Africa so far. Africa is now even home to several national economies that rank among the world’s fastest growing.

Rémy Rioux, Chief Executive Officer of AFD