The international financial crisis increases the relevance of this annual publication jointly published by the African Development Bank, the OECD Development Centre and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). Decision makers in African and OECD countries, such as aid agencies, investors, NGOs and government officials of aid-recipient countries, will all find the analysis critical to their activities.

The African Economic Outlook 2009 reviews the recent economic situation and predicts the short-term evolution of 47 African countries which account for 99% of the continent's economic output and 97% of its population. The Outlook is drawn from a country-by-country analysis based on a unique analytical design. This common framework includes a forecasting exercise for the current and the two following years, using a simple macroeconomic model, together with an analysis of the social and political context. It also contains a comparative synthesis of African country prospects, placing the evolution of African economies in the world economic context.

The 2009 edition focuses on innovation and information and communication technologies (ICT) in Africa, presenting a comprehensive review of their proliferation and use on the African continent. A statistical appendix completes the volume.

The AEO project is generously supported by the European Commission and combines the knowledge of the African Development Bank and the UNECA on African economies with the expertise accumulated by the OECD, which produces the OECD Economic Outlook twice yearly.

This publication provides dynamic links (StatLinks) for graphs and tables. These StatLinks direct the user to a web page where the corresponding data are available in Excel® format.