Perceptions of Equatorial Guinea are skewed by outdated statistical data, said representatives of the World Bank and IMF participating in a panel at the Emerging Equatorial Guinea conference in Malabo this Wednesday. “Statistics about Equatorial Guinea are very much outdated, particularly poverty numbers,” said Gregor Binkert, World Bank country director for West Africa. “Some of the figures [cited in public sources] are from as far back as ’05 or ’06,” he said. He added that the World Bank would support the establishment of an official statistics institute and a system for collecting and analysing statistics in Equatorial Guinea. Jon Shields, the International Monetary Fund’s mission chief for Equatorial Guinea, agreed with the need to “start collecting statistics and to look at the reliability of the statistics we have.”
The government of Equatorial Guinea has long disputed statistics that claim that the vast majority of its population is extremely poor. Many expatriates and visitors to the country have noted that, while poverty exists, there is no anecdotal evidence to support the kinds of statistics that are generally repeated in news and other reports. Shields believes that statistics need to be gathered to analyse and improve public expenditure—to determine whether it is sustainable and sufficiently controlled, and how it can be improved.
Both men agreed that the lack of reliable statistics is a problem throughout sub-Saharan Africa, but it is particularly acute in Equatorial Guinea, which has experienced enormous growth and development over the past ten years. Binkert called Equatorial Guinea’s physical infrastructure, which has had heavy investment from the country’s petroleum revenues, “impressive”. He added that he thinks that Equatorial Guinea has entered a period in which it should place greater emphasis on social investments such as public health and education. He said that the government had been spending to improve medical care but now needs to shift its emphasis: “Hospitals have been built, but there is a need to develop a full health system.”
Binkert said that the World Bank will develop programs to encourage Equatorial Guinea to study other countries that have transformed their economies or have other experiences that can be helpful, such as South Korea, Singapore, Colombia and Costa Rica. These programs would include visits, exchanges and twinning that pairs Equatorial Guinean institutions with those from other countries.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/02/04/6126535/poverty-statistics-for-equatorial.html#storylink=cpy