Africa Monitor Africa Monitor Home Data Stories Dashboard Data Access Data Catalog APIs About Welcome to the Kiel Institute Africa Monitor The Kiel Institute Africa Monitor is your centralized access to the leading economic indicators on Africa. You can conveniently visualize or download data through this platform. Advanced users can directly access our global database via powerful R and Python APIs. The Monitor helps you quickly get a fact-based view of African economies by visually flipping through carefully selected and organized indicators using the dashboard. Supporting data stories by Kiel Institute researchers elucidate relevant topics in detail. The Africa Monitor is a joint effort of the research center International Development and the Kiel Institute's Africa Initiative, and was developed by Sebastian Krantz. The monitor consists of several building blocks accessible through this website: Data Stories Interactive analytical pieces on selected topics concerning Africa's economic development and global linkages. Dashboard Web-Application to interactively visualize monitor data and build custom charts. Data Portal Portal to access monitor data interactively and download it in various standard formats. Data Catalog Overview of the indicators and African countries available through the monitor's database, and the sources from which data were collected. The database itself covers all 195 countries, but data for non-African countries is only accessible through the APIs. APIs High-speed access to the entire database through dedicated R and Python packages. Copyright © 2025, Sebastian Krantz | Legal Notice (Kiel Institute) Data Stories Data stories are short analytical pieces combining data visualizations and analysis to expound a topic concerning economic development in Africa. Socio-Economic Circumstances of Tax Systems in Africa Nils Sonennberg and Prof. Jens Boysen-Hogrefe - November 8, 2024 This data story analyzes to what extent socio-economic circumstances affect the level of taxation in African countries. It finds that higher income and older populations affect tax quotas positively. Indirect taxes do, however, not benefit from higher GDP levels. Here, the quality of governance is key. Economic Growth in Africa Jan Reents and Dr. Klaus-Jürgen Gern - June 18, 2024 This data story reviews Africa's historical growth performance alongside an empirical analysis of the main contributing factors. It elucidates several key factors in driving economic growth, including labor, productivity, capital, and, notably, the quality of institutions. Effective governance emerges as a critical determinant, with countries exhibiting stronger institutions experiencing more consistent economic growth. Institutions as a Fundamental Cause of Long-Term Economic Growth Dr. Dominik Groll - June 18, 2024 A deep dive into the hypothesis that institutions are the fundamental driver of economic growth in Africa - synthesizing scientific literature, evidence, and criticisms of the 'institutions hypothesis.' Taxation in Africa By Prof. Jens Boysen-Hogrefe - December 21, 2023 Drawing on novel data sources, this data story analyzes facts and trends around taxation in Africa, including tax reporting by country, strong and weak performers, important correlates of revenue performance, and procyclicality of taxation and fiscal policy. The New Urban Middle Class in Africa By Sekou Metiki - December 14, 2022 This data story provides an overview of the African's middle class. It includes different measures of the middle class share and population for a set of 46 African countries from 2009 to 2020. Additionaly, it gives some projections of what will be the size of the middle class in Africa under different scenarios. Africa's External Sector By Alexander Ligai and Sebastian Krantz - December 13, 2022 This datastory provides an overview of Africa's external positions and flows with the rest of the world, as recorded in the current account and international investment position. It includes detailed analysis of trade flows, international reserves, and external debt. Patterns of Innovation and Firm Growth in Nigeria By Sophia Fehrenbacher - August 25, 2022 While the majority of Sub-Saharan African firms operate in resource constrained environments, analyzing innovation strategy among formally registered Nigerian firms shows that cooperation is a frequently used form of sourcing knowledge for innovative activities. Africa's Integration into Global Value Chains By Sebastian Krantz - June 28, 2022 This data story uses the EORA Global Supply Chain Database to map the structure of world production in value-added terms, with a specific emphasis on Africa's role as a provider and consumer of value-added, and as an emerging participant in Global Value Chains. Logistics, Public Infrastructure and the Business Environment in Africa By Sebastian Krantz - May 30, 2022 This data story provides a detailed analysis of logistic performance and the business environment across African economies. A particular focus is laid on the development of public infrastructure and its role in enhancing logistics and economic growth. Copyright © 2025, Sebastian Krantz | Legal Notice (Kiel Institute) Select Data to Visualize Select Topic 00. Economic Activity 01. GDP (IMF) 01.1. GDP and GNI (WDI) 02. Purchasing Power Parity (WDI) 02.1. Purchasing Power Parity (IMF) 03. Domestic Prices (IMF) 03.1. Domestic Prices (WDI) 04. Interest Rates 05. Exchange Rates (IMF) 05.1. Exchange Rates (WDI) 06. Labor Market (IMF) 06.1. Labor Market & Productivity (WDI) 07. Gross Expenditure and Savings 08. Adjusted Income & Savings 09. Investment and Capital Stock 10. Government Finance 11. Expenditure on GDP (IMF) 11.1. GDP Expenditure Shares (WDI) 11.2. Expenditure on GDP (UN NA) 12. GDP Production Shares 12.1. Gross Value Added by Economic Activity 13. Sectoral Employment Shares (ILO) 14. Sectoral Labor Productivity 15. Balance of Payments (IMF) 15.1. Balance of Payments (WDI) 15.2. International Investment Position (IMF) 16. External Debt Outstanding 17. External Debt Service 18. Financial & Aid Flows 18.1. Bilateral Direct Investment 18.2. Bilateral Portfolio Investment 19. Aggregate Trade 20. Bilateral Trade 21. Trade Volumes and Prices 22. Merchandise Trade Composition 23. Commercial Services Trade Composition 24. Trade Tariffs 25. Trade Facilitation 26. International Tourism 27. Migration & Refugees 28. Monetary 28.1. Monetary: Central Bank 28.2. Monetary: ODCs 29. Financial Sector Ratios 30. Financial Access 31. Worldwide Governance Indicators 32. Index of Economic Freedom 33. Doing Business 34. Logistics Performance Index 35. Taxes 36. Transport & Communications 37. Military 38. Science and Innovation 39. Population Structure & Dynamics 40. Population Density & Urbanization 41. Education 42. Health & Mortality 43. Gender Equality 44. Poverty & Inequality 45. Land Use 46. Agricultural Production 47. Natural Resources Contribution to GDP 48. Energy Production & Use 49. Water & Sanitation 50. Emissions & Pollution 51. Human Development Reports Select Series Frequency Partners Select Regions All Regions North Africa (NOA) Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) Oil-Exporting Countries (OEC) Middle-Income Countries (MIC) Low-Income Countries (LIC) Countries in Fragile Situations (CFS) West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) East African Community (EAC) East African Community Excl. South Sudan (EAC5) Southern African Development Community (SADC) Southern African Customs Union (SACU) Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN_SAD) Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Compact with Africa (CwA) Other Resource-Intensive Countries (ORIC) Non-Resource Intensive Countries (NRIC) Select Countries All Countries Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Comoros Congo - Brazzaville Congo - Kinshasa Côte d’Ivoire Djibouti Egypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Eswatini Ethiopia Gabon Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Kenya Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Morocco Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa South Sudan Sudan São Tomé & Príncipe Tanzania Togo Tunisia Uganda Western Sahara Zambia Zimbabwe Time/Aggregation Range Transform Data Select Transformation(s) Select Functions Ln Log10 Sqrt Abs Square Standardize Center Cumsum Index Difference Growth Rate Rolling Mean Rolling Median Rolling Std. Dev. Rolling MAD Base Year of Index (Value = 100) Lags Rolling Window Size Apply Functions Plot Type Linegraph Barchart Horizontal-Bars Joint Hover Gridlines Dark Theme Dark Theme Aggregation Statistic Mean Median Sum Std. Dev. MAD First Last Min Max Download CSV Plot Weighted Map Map (Legacy) Data Interactive Matrix/Plot Interactive Correlation Matrix Don't Cluster Correlation Matrix Correlation Matrix Don't Cluster Correlation Matrix Remove Coefficients Insignificant at 5% Level Show Classical Matrix Font Size Show Variable Labels Download Data Frequency Annual Quarterly Monthly Add Country & Time Information Select Topics All Select Variables All Select Inverse (Exclude) Apply Selection Filter Data Select Regions All Regions North Africa (NOA) Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) Oil-Exporting Countries (OEC) Middle-Income Countries (MIC) Low-Income Countries (LIC) Countries in Fragile Situations (CFS) West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) East African Community (EAC) East African Community Excl. South Sudan (EAC5) Southern African Development Community (SADC) Southern African Customs Union (SACU) Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN_SAD) Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Compact with Africa (CwA) Other Resource-Intensive Countries (ORIC) Non-Resource Intensive Countries (NRIC) Aggregator Functions mean sum product median mode minimum maximum first value last value variance standard deviation number of observations number of distinct values Long Format Remove Missing Values Drop Categorical Variables Preserve Column Order Aggregate Choose Format Excel CSV TAB R STATA SAS SPSS STATA Version Download Table Variables Summary Correlations Data Sources Topics Series Countries Entities Entities Description Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) R Python The R package africamonitor provides high-speed access to the Africa Monitor Database, which provides >700 time series at different frequencies, with high coverage of African economies, for 195 countries. The API allows bulk download of the entire database or query of individual series. The functions am_sources() and am_series(), as well as the am_countries table provide information about the available data, analogous to the 'Data Catalog' tab. Country and series codes from these tables are needed to query data using the am_data() function. An additional am_entities table records country membership in various regional entities. The API is fully documented on the R help pages, calling help(africamonitor) after installation. A small demonstration is provided below. Installation The package can be installed from the R console by executing the following line of R code: install.packages('africamonitor') Example Usage The following code downloads real GDP growth and Inflation for Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Kenya from 2000 onwards. The africamonitor package also provides functions am_pivot_longer() and am_pivot_wider() to reshape data from the API. The format of the data can also be …