The economic and financial study makes it possible to draw up a diagnosis of the overall economic and financial situation of companies, particularly by branch of activity. For this edition, it is based on a series of DSFs of 1259 representative companies. (Appendix ii). The year 2018 marks the entry into force of the new chart of accounts applicable to the member countries of the OHADA area, including Cameroon. The indicators in this report are calculated using information from the new SYSCOHADA. As a result, changes or breaks in the trend will be observed for some indicators, especially those taking into account fixed assets.
Economic activity rebounds in 2018.
The domestic economy continued to show resilience in 2018, a year marked by a slowdown in the global economy. The growth rate stood at 4.1% after 3.5% in 2017. The most contributing sectors were primary and secondary, particularly through the “agriculture” and “extractive industries” branches of activity. This increased economic output took place in a context of an increase in the general price level of around 1.1% against inflation of 0.7% in 2017.
Evolution of business activity and profits.
In 2018, the pre-tax turnover of modern companies increased by +3.48% after falling in the previous two years, from -4 to -2%. This performance was attributable to merchandise sales (+10.0%), while sales of manufactured products and sales of works and services were down. The overall value added of modern companies increased substantially by +12.8% in 2018, after a slight decline in 2017 (-1.5%). This improvement is mainly due to the momentum of Construction (+50.3%), Electricity, Gas and Air Conditioning Production and Distribution (+32.7%), Beverage Industry (+19.8%) and Financial and Insurance (+11.0%). It is also the result of the performance of the “Extraction of hydrocarbon and other energy products” business line, which, with the entry into operation of a new natural gas production platform, recorded a growth in value added of +39.7% after a fall of -25.0% in 2017. On the other hand, a contraction in value added was observed in various branches, namely wholesale and retail trade and vehicle repair (-0.8%), transport and warehousing (-2.4%) and information and telecommunications activities (-8.4%). This shows an overall value added rate of 25.1% in 2018, a gain of 2.2 percentage points compared to 2017. The Extraction of hydrocarbon products and other energy products (72.2%), Real Estate (69.8%) and Transport and warehousing (44.5%) branches of activity stand out for their very high rate of value added. On the other hand, the Petroleum Refining and Coking and Leather Industries and Footwear Manufacturing industries have very low or even negative value added rates. (Excerpt from the summary note)