- Wednesday May 24th, 2023
- Posted by: inscameroun
- Category:
The socio–economic environment in 2022 was marked by inflationary pressures exacerbated by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, with the main repercussions on the national economy being the disruption of global supply chains, soaring oil prices, worsening of the trade deficit due to higher import prices and dollar appreciation. In this rather unfavourable environment, enterprises in the modern sector of the economy showed resilience. After a 9.6% increase in 2021, overall turnover excluding taxes rose by 17.4% in value terms in 2022. This momentum was mainly fuelled by five branches of activity that performed particularly well during the year. Compared to 2021 prices, the turnover increased by 10.5%, slightly above the previous year’s performance. With the increase in the prices of raw materials, energy and maritime transport costs due to the long distance from supply points, enterprises had difficulty increasing their value added and, consequently, making profits. Nevertheless, the outstanding performance of hydrocarbon extraction activities, on the one hand, and financial intermediation activities on the other, had a positive impact on overall value added and profits.
The number of permanent jobs increased by 2.8% in 2022, allowing enterprises to catch up with the level of employment before the covid–19 pandemic. This positive trend also generated productivity gains (+2.2 million CFA francs per employee compared to 2021). The pace of investment was less sustained (–2.6% compared to 2021), as a result of the sluggishness of the primary sector and manufacturing industry. Thus, productive capital continued to deteriorate, with the rate of aging of fixed assets rising from 55.2% in 2021 to 58.1% in 2022.
As in 2021, enterprises’ working capital was positive for the second time, contributing to the improvement in their net cash position. However, the net debt–to–equity ratio, which represents the ratio of financial debt to equity, stood at 1.1, slightly above the sustainable limit of 1. In a nutshell, enterprises were able to consolidate their post–Covid–19 level of activity, though without generating more value added and profits; with the exception of enterprises in the branches of activity of extraction, agricultural export and financial intermediation, which were able to take advantage of the decline in the effects of Covid–19 and the repercussions of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.