Gabon’s 2026 Public Finance Review outlines strategic budgetary policies designed to enhance fiscal sustainability, stimulate job creation, and elevate the quality of life for Gabonese citizens.
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Key insights uncovered
- Revenue streams: Non-oil tax revenues averaged just 10.5% of GDP between 2014 and 2024—well below peers—largely due to excessive tax exemptions and persistent compliance hurdles.
- Public spending trends: Total expenditures surged to 25% of GDP in 2023–2024, yet social sector allocations lagged at only 4% of GDP—less than half the Sub-Saharan Africa average—while bloated payrolls, fuel subsidies, and debt servicing crowded out productive and social investments.
- Resource revenue performance: Despite ranking as Sub-Saharan Africa’s fourth-largest oil producer, the world’s second-biggest manganese supplier, and a major timber exporter, Gabon lags in per-barrel oil receipts compared with regional peers, and earnings from mining and forestry sectors remain far below their fiscal potential.
- Public finance governance: Direct contracting dominated 90% of public procurement value in 2024, arrears on public debt hit 3.5% of GDP by late 2025, and state-owned enterprises’ combined liabilities exceeded 8% of GDP, highlighting systemic weaknesses in budget execution, cash management, debt oversight, procurement practices, and corporate governance.
- Social sector funding gaps: Gabon’s health, education, and social protection systems face chronic underfunding, with spending inefficiencies further exacerbating outcomes. The nation averages 0.5 doctors per 1,000 people, fewer than half of early-childhood educators hold formal qualifications, and social protection outlays amounted to just 0.03% of GDP in 2024.
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