North Africa Businessforecast Industry Forecast

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

An influential new analysis of North Africa's political, economic and financial prospects through end-2012, just published by award-winning forecasters, Business Monitor International.

 

 

 

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

Key Uses for the North Africa Business Forecast Report

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

The North Africa Business Forecast Report by Business Monitor International includes four major sections: North Africa's Political Outlook, North Africa's Economic Outlook, North Africa's Business Environment and North Africa's Key Industry Sectors.

North Africa's Political Outlook:

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

BMI's North 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.

North Africa Political Outlook Contents

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

Key Benefits

  1. Benchmark North Africa's 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 North Africa, and to your company's current operations and future plans.
  3. Gain valuable insights into the North African government and policy-making, through BMI's specialist team of analysts and economists, and their exclusive network of private and public sector sources.

North Africa's Economic Outlook:

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

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

North Africa Economic Outlook Contents

The North Africa Business Forecast Report features explicit BMI economic forecasts for North Africa, with supporting commentary and analysis, for end-2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 set against North African government views. Underpinning our North Africa 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 North Africa

  • Economic Activity in North Africa
    Real GDP growth; industrial growth; employment growth; inflation and consumer prices; consumption (indicative wages, retail sales, consumer confidence)
  • Fiscal Policy in North Africa
    Current macroeconomic strategy and implementation policies; government finance (revenue, expenditure, budget balance); tax reforms
  • Monetary Policy in North Africa
    Interest rate trends (bank lending and deposit rates); inflation (retail price inflation, consumer price inflation); exchange rate policy in North Africa; North African currency controls; influence of foreign direct investment inflows; exchange rates and foreign exchange reserves
  • Balance of Payments in North Africa
    Merchandise trade (exports, imports, trade balance); current account balance
  • Foreign Direct Investment in North Africa
    Foreign direct investment approvals and inflows; the foreign investment climate
  • North African 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 North Africa and underlying assumptions - we take no advertising and are privately-owned.
  2. Exploit the benefits of BMI's comprehensive and reliable macroeconomic North Africa 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 North African government economic policy

North Africa's Business Environment:

How internationally competitive is North Africa'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 North Africa.

North Africa Business Environment Contents

  • North Africa's Business Environment Risk Rating with SWOT Analysis
    Short and long-term business environment risk ratings for North Africa, benchmarked against ratings for Africa and neighbouring countries.
  • Country Competitiveness for North Africa
    Competitiveness of North Africa'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 North Africa'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 in North Africa
    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 with North Africa
    Analysis of trading environment, government trade policy, liberalisation measures, tariffs and membership of trade areas

North Africa's Key Industry Sectors

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

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

Coverage of North Africa's Key Industry Sectors - North African 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 North Africa
    Review of latest projects, deals, privatisations, mergers and acquisitions, and implications for sector performance; company rankings for national and multinational companies in North Africa; main industry players by local sales, employee size, market share and main brands, products and services
  • 5-year Industry Forecast for North Africa
    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 North 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 North 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 North Africa Business Forecast Report is an essential tool for CEOs, Chairmen, Finance Directors/CFOs, Managing Directors, Marketing/Sales Directors with commercial interests in North 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:

3M, Abbott Laboratories, Accenture, Access Bank Plc, ADNEC, American Express (Middle East) BSC, Arab Swiss Engineering Co ASEC Group, Astra Zeneca, Bahrain Petroleum Company, BNP Paribas, British American Tobacco SA (pty) Ltd, Crown Industries, Ernst & Young, GE International Inc, Gulf Holding Company, Hyder Consulting, Impact/BBDO, Intercontinental Bank Plc, Kellogg, Mobinil, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Samsung Engineering & Construction, Telkom Wholesale Services, Tesco Corporation, Tetra Pak Egypt Ltd, Visa International 

 

" I've found BMI's Business Forecast Reports most informative & helpful with pertinent information at a level that supports both strategic intent as well as more short term initiatives. "
Managing Director, Essilor South Africa Pty Ltd, South Africa.

BMI's Executive Summary for North Africa

[TOP]

Upbeat Economic Outlook, Benign Short-Term Political Risk

We expect real GDP growth in Algeria to remain robust over the forecast period, aided by plentiful hydrocarbon revenues, major infrastructural projects and a boost in government spending as part of the ongoing five-year economic revival plan. Inflation poses a key risk, especially in light of the government's heavy spending plans and salary increases, as well as the economy's vulnerability to volatile commodity import costs. The economy is increasingly open to foreign investors, and we expect foreign direct investment (FDI) to trend upwards over the coming years. Despite the continuation in suicide bombings and other attacks by Islamic militants, we do not foresee any immediate threat to the government's position in Algeria. However, the increasing strength of militant groups is a symptom of the malaise and disaffection prevalent among Algeria's youth population, stemming largely from high levels of unemployment.

Like Algeria, we envisage Libya's economy following a strong growth path in the coming years thanks to continuous expansion of the hydrocarbons industry as well as ongoing economic diversification. Hydrocarbons earnings are expected to contract towards 2010 and then expand as gas exports increase robustly. Given the dominant role of hydrocarbons in Libya's economy, over-dependence on the sector poses a key risk to our outlook. Receipts from the sector have been channelled into a US$40bn Sovereign Wealth Fund that will mean strong outflows from the capital and financial account. Libya's rapprochement with the international community continues apace, with a number of bilateral meetings with the US and EU member states having taken place in the past few months. Investors are following the political lead and we expect FDI inflows to rise over the coming years.

Moroccan growth looks set to bounce back to the longer-term trend level of around 5 % in 2008, following a dip in 2007 due to the poor agricultural harvest. Growth will be fuelled by a mixture of increased government spending and rising output in the agriculture sector; volatility in the latter will remain a key downside risk, although positive efforts are being made to diversify the economy. Recent US dollar weakness should provide a boost to Morocco's economy given its implications for the country's import bill and export competitiveness via the dirham's basket peg. Meanwhile, the newly formed governing coalition has become a poorer reflection of voter sentiment. The Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) remains in opposition, despite gaining the second-highest number of seats in the September 2007 elections. As we anticipated, fears of the Islamists taking hold were overblown. While democracy still leaves something to be desired, we cannot deny that the changes bode well for stability.

We retain our sanguine view on Tunisia's economic outlook and believe that the country will continue to post solid growth of between 4.5-5% throughout our forecast period. While high oil prices do pose some threat in terms of inflation and the balance of payments position, Tunisia's monetary authorities have proved adept at maintaining stability, while the country is also attracting huge investment inflows from oil rich neighbours in the Middle East. Rising incomes, solid growth and prudent economic policies should underpin domestic political stability going forward, although high unemployment and the country's democratic deficit remain a worry in the longer term.

Read about our other Business Forecast Reports  

Asia

Australia, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam

Europe

Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Caucasus, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Kazakhstan & Central Asia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine

Middle East

Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon & Syria, Kuwait, Oman & Yemen, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE

Africa

Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Francophone West Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, North Africa, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

North & South America

Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, East Caribbean, Mexico, Peru, Trinidad & Tobago, Venezuela, West Caribbean

 

Business Monitor International

Business Monitor International
A Market Leader in Country Risk, Industry Intelligence and Company Research

Mermaid House, 2 Puddle Dock, Blackfriars, London EC4V 3DS, UK

BUSINESS MONITOR INTERNATIONAL's country risk analysis and forecasts, market research on leading industries, and multinational company research is relied upon by corporates, banks, government departments and multilateral organisations in over 125 countries around the world.

Country Risk Analysis and Forecasts
BMI
has for 25 years specialised in political risk analysis, financial markets analysis, and macroeconomic forecasts on 175 global markets.

Industry Intelligence and Market Research
BMI's industry research covers Automotives; Banking; Chemicals; Defence & Security; Food & Drink; Freight Transport; Information Technology; Infrastructure; Insurance; Mining; Oil & Gas; Petrochemicals; Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare; Power; Telecommunications, and Tourism.

Company Research
BMI maintains a fully-researched 55,000-site database of multinational company subsidiaries located across global markets.