Despite the difficulties in the mining sector, indicators are improving, thanks in particular to fiscal adjustments and non-extractive GDP growth. But much remains to be done in terms of the business climate. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank agree that Mauritania's economy is improving. For the first, " Mauritania's performance continues to be strong. Macroeconomic stability has been preserved, the ratio of external debt to gross domestic product [GDP] has fallen, foreign exchange reserves have increased ." For the second, " the economic deceleration in 2015-2016 led the government to make a fiscal adjustment and structural reforms that made it possible to restore economic stability". There is ample evidence of this recovery. The pace of growth is accelerating, with 3.6 % in 2018 and +6.9 % forecast in 2019, revised upwards by the IMF (see table). And the good news is that this upturn is no longer driven only by extractive industries but by agriculture (rice, white meat, irrigated crops), fishing, construction (concrete iron) or telecoms. A beginning of diversification in a country too dependent on its subsoil. Thanks to savings and better tax revenues (+0.7 % in 2017 and + 0.8 % in 2018), the budget deficit of 0.2 % of GDP gave way to a surplus of 1.5 %.  Foreign exchange reserves are adequate. Inflation is contained at less than 4 % and the Central Bank of Mauritania was able to lower its key interest rate for the first time in ten years, from 9 % to 6.5 %. There is also talk of a stock exchange coming into being in 2020. Nevertheless, it is necessary to make some adjustments to this rather pleasing picture. Of the Central Bank's billion dollars in reserves, $300 million was lent by Saudi Arabia. Two banks, NBM and BMS, seem to be in bad shape. Finally, public debt exceeded 80 % of GDP in 2018, one of the highest rates in West Africa. There remains the significant risk posed by the National Industrial and Mining Company (Snim), which is 78.35 % state-owned. No one understands how a company that made good profits from 2010 to 2013 because of the very high price of iron ore could, at the same time, take on so much debt. Victim of the fall in prices from 2014 and unable for two years to produce more than 12 million tons per year despite an increase in its production capacity, it is out of cash and in deficit, which jeopardizes the repayment of its loans. The opacity is total on the investments it had to make on order in air transport, real estate, health or tourism. Like the Algerian Sonatrach or Gazprom in Russia, the Snim has been a giant slush fund, used without control or rationality according to the needs of power. Former Finance Minister Moctar Ould Djay (see p. 103) was appointed head of the company on 5 September and his first task is to take stock of the financial and technical ills of the company whose size (it is the country's largest employer) poses a systemic risk to public finances and to the economy. While the situation is becoming clearer at the macroeconomic level, it is not the same in the field of microeconomics: the private sector is at a standstill. The business climate is improving according to the World Bank's " Doing Business " ranking, where Mauritania rose from 176th to 148th place between 2015 and 2019. In reality, the fabric of enterprises is of poor quality because the economy is dependent on the state. The informal sector is omnipresent, and SMEs live rather badly than well, because large multi-activity family groups (trading, real estate, mining, banking, agribusiness) monopolize public markets and nip potential competitors in the bud. Often close to power, these groups are generally in a situation of monopoly or oligopoly.

The Report on the Economic Situation in Mauritania published in May 2019 by the World Bank confirms the constraints that prevent SMEs from growing: " A strong state presence in the economy and an unfair playing field, difficult access to finance, a local workforce with limited skills, the prevalence of corruption, limited business services and inefficient bureaucracy." The labour market has deteriorated all the more so as it " is marked by a large gap between men and men and women and through the marginalization of young people ," notes the World Bank. The new executive has sent signals announcing a rethink. The Minister of the Civil Service is preparing a postponement of the retirement age from 60 to 65 years, the Minister of Fisheries has canceled the licenses granted to fishermen this year and not executed before August 31 ... Many projects await the government. The latter will have to carry out a settlement of insolvency, an improvement of commercial justice, better communication of the authorities, a real dialogue between the private and the public, legal equality between men and women, access for SMEs to public procurement and to appropriate financing, a sustained fight against corruption or a land policy worthy of the name. Neither the revenues of the Grand Tortue offshore gas field from 2023 (read above) nor the recent revival of iron prices will spare it the difficult and sometimes painful path of in-depth reforms.