Nineteen individual African country forecast reports analysing Africa's political, economic and financial prospects through end-2012, just published by award-winning forecasters, Business Monitor International

The Africa Business Forecast Reports provide essential macroeconomic, political and financial analysis for companies doing business in Africa. The Africa Business Forecast Reports helps businesses with African market assessments, strategic planning and decision making to promote growth and profitability in African markets and is an essential tool for CEOs, Chairmen, Finance Directors / CFOs, Managing Directors, Marketing / Sales Directors with commercial interests in this emerging region.

Key Uses of the Africa Business Forecast Reports | Africa's Political Outlook | Africa's Economic Outlook | Africa's Business Environment | Key Africa Industry Sectors | Our Africa Subscribers | Full Range of BMI's Business Forecast Reports

Key Uses of the Africa Business Forecast Reports

• Forecast the pace and stability of each African country's economic and industry growth through end-2012
• Identify and evaluate adverse political and economic trends in Africa, to facilitate risk mitigation strategies
• Assess critical shortcomings of each African country market's business environment that pose hidden barriers and costs to corporate profitability
• Contextualise individual African country risks against their African regional peers using BMI's country comparative risk ratings system
• Target business opportunities in Africa's high-growth industry sectors
• Evaluate external threats to doing business in each African country, including currency volatility, the commodity price boom and protectionist policies

The Africa Business Forecast Reports by Business Monitor International include four major sections for each country: Africa's Political Outlook, Africa's Economic Outlook, Africa's Business Environment and Africa's Key Industry Sectors.

Africa's Political Outlook:

What are the political risks to doing business in Africa over the next 5 years?

BMI's Africa Country Risk Ratings evaluate the short and medium-term threats posed by government instability, adverse economic policy-making, deterioration in the business environment and external shocks.

Africa Political Outlook Contents

• SWOT Analysis for each African Market
  Political Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats facing Africa.
• Political Stability and Risk Assessment for Africa
  BMI's Risk Ratings assess explicit short and long-term risks to political stability; latest ratings, rankings and trends for each country's risk are compared with Africa regional and global averages.
• Current Administration and Policy-making in Africa
  BMI profiles key policy-makers and power-brokers in the African government, assessing threats to the continuity of African economic policy, and likely changes to the business operating environment through end-2012.
• African Foreign Policy
  BMI examines key trends and shifts in Africa's foreign relations and alignments with African neighbours, the United States and Europe, focusing on external influences.

Key Benefits

1. Benchmark each African country risk profile against its neighbours, the global and regional average, allowing easy comparison of risks between key business markets.
2. Identify, evaluate and anticipate political and security risks to the business environment in Africa, and to your company's current operations and future plans.
3. Gain valuable insights into the government and policy-making, through BMI's specialist team of analysts and economists, and their exclusive network of private and public sector sources.

Africa's Economic Outlook:

How will African economic policy-making and performance impact corporate profitability over 2008-12?

BMI provides our fully independent 5-year forecasts for Africa through end-2012 for more than 35 macroeconomic variables. We evaluate African growth, and also forecast the impact of economic management, including central bank policy, on profitability.

Africa Economic Outlook Contents

The Africa Business Forecast Report features explicit BMI economic forecasts for each of the African markets, with supporting commentary and analysis, for end-2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 set against government views. Underpinning our forecasts are key assumptions for the global economy through end-2012, covering growth, inflation, employment, trade and investment, interest and exchange rates in the US, Japan and the Euro-zone.

Coverage of Key Economic Issues in Africa

• Economic Activity
  Real GDP growth; industrial growth; employment growth; inflation and consumer prices; consumption (indicative wages, retail sales, consumer confidence)
• Fiscal Policy
  Current macroeconomic strategy and implementation policies; government finance (revenue, expenditure, budget balance); tax reforms
• Monetary Policy
  Interest rate trends (bank lending and deposit rates); inflation (retail price inflation, consumer price inflation)
• Exchange Rate Policy
  Currency controls; influence of foreign direct investment inflows; exchange rates and foreign exchange reserves
• Balance of Payments
  
  Merchandise trade (exports, imports, trade balance); current account balance
• Foreign Direct Investment
  Foreign direct investment approvals and inflows; the foreign investment climate
• External Debt
  
  Debt profile (short- and long-term debt; public and private sector exposure)

Key Benefits

1. Rely upon BMI's 100% independent Forecast Scenarios for each African market and underlying assumptions - we take no advertising and are privately-owned.
2. Exploit the benefits of BMI's comprehensive and reliable macroeconomic country database, sourced and fully maintained by BMI from an extensive network of private sector, government and multilateral contacts.
3. Gain key insights into the current and future direction of government economic policy.

Africa's Business Environment:

How internationally competitive is each African country's regulatory environment, and what changes can be expected?

BMI assesses levels of transparency, flexibility of labour market, tax burden, development of the banking sector and credit availability, infrastructure and IT, foreign investment regime and trade liberalisation in each African market.

Africa Business Environment Contents

• Business Environment Risk Rating with SWOT Analysis
  Short and long-term business environment risk ratings for each African country, benchmarked against ratings for neighbouring countries.
• Country Competitiveness
  Competitiveness of each country's business operating environment in supporting corporate growth and profitability over the 5-year forecast horizon, compared with regional neighbours.

Coverage of Key Business Environment Issues in each African market's Domestic Environment

Transparency, cronyism and corruption; labour market flexibility; corporate tax burden; interest rate levels; access of private sector to lines of credit; sophistication of banking sector and stock market; levels of business confidence; infrastructure and IT

• Foreign Direct Investment
  Analysis of foreign investment regime, foreign ownership laws; attractiveness of business environment to foreign investors; review of major foreign direct investments over the last 24 months, and of strategic sectors attracting most interest
• Foreign Trade
  Analysis of trading environment, government trade policy, liberalisation measures, tariffs and membership of trade areas

Africa's Key Industry Sectors

Which industry sectors in Africa will grow fastest, and where are the major investment opportunities in each African market?

BMI targets investment opportunities in each African market's high growth industries, including automotives, food and drink, infrastructure, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, telecommunications and IT.

Coverage of Africa's Key Industry Sectors - Africa Market Overview

Size, value and structure of industry; impact of liberalisation and privatisation on sector performance and prospects; friendliness of business environment

• Latest Developments in Africa
  Review of latest projects, deals, privatisations, mergers and acquisitions, and implications for sector performance; company rankings for national and multinational companies in Africa; main industry players by local sales, employee size, market share and main brands, products and services
• 5-year Industry Forecast for each African Market
  Historic dataset (2003-2007) and BMI forecasts through end-2012, covering headline industry data broken out by sub sector

Key Benefits

1. Target strategic sector-by-sector opportunities in Africa's high growth industries, attracting public expenditure and foreign investment; identify key players and competitors driving growth, investment and business opportunities.
2. Benefit from competitive intelligence on top national and multinational companies operating in Africa's major industry sectors, including analysis of recent trends in sales and market share, company strategies, product launches and latest deals.

Who buys the Africa Business Forecast Reports?

The Africa Business Forecast Reports are essential tools for CEOs, Chairmen, Finance Directors/CFOs, Managing Directors, Marketing/Sales Directors with commercial interests in Africa.

Our Business Forecast Reports are relied upon by corporates, banks, government departments and multinational organisations around the world.

Business Monitor International's Business Forecast Report subscribers include:

Asia

Europe

Middle East

Africa

North & South America