Un exemple de modélisation et de prévision en Afrique

Abstract

As requested by the economic administrations of some African countries, the OFCE Econometric Department was led to build and finalize short and medium term forecasting models different from those currently used in the developed countries. This paper presents the model built for the Planning Agency and the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the gabonese Republic. The first part develops a few methodological points on the modelling associated with the building of the economic budget. The second one presents the « MEGA » model main characteristics (Modèle de l'Economie gabonaise). This model features two major specifics. On the one hand, it includes not only national accounts but also public finance (in budget item), balance of payments as well as internal and foreign public debt. On the other hand, three means of State Account loops can be considered : the adjustment can be made either on public investment, or foreign debt or on the Treasury. Studying the growth of the Gabonese Economy over the past 5 years, shows that the functioning of the model with endogeneous public investment traces the observed behaviour rather closely.