According to the report, published by the IMF's Institute for Capacity Development and financed by the government of Japan, the technical assistance was requested by the Gabonese authorities in July 2024. It aims to equip the ministry's division in charge of macroeconomic forecasting and modelling with a new macroeconomic projection model capable of producing robust forecasts and scenario and shock analyses, including on the trajectory of public debt.
The scoping mission, conducted in Libreville by an IMF team led by a resident advisor based at the Regional Technical Assistance Centre for Central Africa (AFRITAC Centre), helped define the project's scope and delivered condensed training in financial programming and policies to officials from several Gabonese ministries, drawing on tools such as the Macroframework Foundations Tool and the Debt Dynamic Tool.
The work plan, agreed ad referendum with the authorities, comprises four phases: scoping and training, customisation of the model for Gabon, development of policy and risk scenarios, and finally improvement and integration of the tool into the decision-making process. The report notes that the Gabonese authorities committed to sparing no effort for the project's success, a commitment already visible during the scoping mission through the production of daily work reports.
