"LE GABON ENERVANT" OR "ANNOYING GABON"

La dette gabonaise, un iceberg dont le FMI veut connaître la partie cachée English version  The IMF mission left Gabon on September 25, 2026 without a deal. But the real news lies elsewhere: this was not a negotiation, and the sticking point is a question that looks simple: how much does Gabon really owe? What happened An IMF team led by Aliona Cebotari was in Libreville from September 14 to 25, 2026. It had three items on its agenda: the findings of the public debt audit, the direction of the 2027 budget, and the government's structural reform programme. The mission worked with the Presidential Debt Taskforce, the BEAC (Bank of Central African States) and the financial sector. It presented its conclusions to the Vice-President of the Government, Hermann Immongault, on September 23, and then to CBON in Port-Gentil on the 25th. The final statement mentions neither a deal nor a programme. The Fund only says that technical work will continue "in the coming weeks" to prepare ...

English version  Why do some countries escape poverty within a single generation, while others, sometimes better endowed with resources, stagnate for decades? South Korea, poor in the 1960s, became an industrial powerhouse. Botswana, which had little at independence, managed to turn its diamonds into a lever for development. By contrast, several oil-producing countries have remained trapped by their resource rents. There is no single recipe, but experience shows that successful trajectories go through fairly recognizable stages. The question is where Gabon stands. The main stages of development Stability and a functioning state. No country takes off without civil peace, predictable rules and an administration capable of collecting taxes and providing basic services. This is the foundation for everything else. Investing in people. Health, education and nutrition come before construction. A healthy, educated population is the raw material of any economic transformation. More producti...