The leaders of UEMOA, meeting at a summit in Abidjan, announced on Monday, December 5, 2022 that the growth rate of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) zone rose in 2022 to 5.7%, down by 0.4% compared to 2021.

Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, the eight member countries of UEMOA have not been spared from “the profound crises that affect the whole world.” For the Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, there are particularly “the consequences of the war in Ukraine”, at a time when “economies were recovering from the shock” of the Covid crisis.

Apart from the growth rate rising from 6.1% in 2021 to 5.7% in 2022 according to Ouattara, inflation rose within the Union from 3.6% to 7.5% in 2022. He believes that the member countries had nevertheless been able to demonstrate “resilience”. For him, the security situation was “worrying” due to “the increasing number of terrorist attacks” in several UEMOA countries, in particular Burkina Faso and Mali. The Ivorian president noted that part of the expenses that should have been allocated “to education and health” were allocated to “defense and security”.