Benin: INStaD revises the national accounts base, 2023 GDP revalued by 25.2%

The National Institute of Statistics and Demography, INStaD, completed in June 2026 the work of changing the base year of the national accounts of Benin. The new base selected is now the year 2023, replacing the 2015 base that was previously used to measure the country’s economic aggregates.

This operation is in line with the recommendations of the United Nations System of National Accounts 2008, which advocates for regular revisions of the base year to improve the quality of economic estimates. According to INStaD, the conventional periodicity of five years could not be respected due to the international economic shocks recorded between 2019 and 2022.

The choice of 2023 is explained by the relative stability of that year for Benin. The period from 2019 to 2023 was also marked by several large-scale statistical operations, which allowed for a better capture of the recent transformations of the national economy.

A Better Measure of the National Economy

Following the rebasing, the GDP of Benin for the year 2023, based on the 2023 base, is estimated at 14,020.2 billion CFA Francs. Under the 2015 base, it was estimated at 11,200.7 billion CFA Francs for the same year. This revision represents a re-evaluation of 25.2%.

However, INStaD specifies that this development does not correspond to a sudden creation of wealth. It rather reflects an improvement in statistical coverage and a better measurement of the country’s economic activities.

According to the institute, the observed re-evaluation from the supply side is supported by all sectors, with a particularly significant contribution from the secondary sector, increasing by 56.1%. On the demand side, the most notable changes concern gross fixed capital formation, re-evaluated by 36.6%, mainly due to a better consideration of investments made in infrastructure, construction, and productive equipment, including those related to economic zones.

The process was carried out with the support of several technical and financial partners, including the World Bank, AFRISTAT, the IMF, GIZ, the African Development Bank, STATFRIC, ECOWAS, and UEMOA. Peer reviews also involved national statistical institutes from Burkina Faso and Mali.

INStaD announces that the work will continue with the retroactive estimation of the national accounts from 1999 to 2022. This step aims to enable Benin to have a new complete series of national accounts based on the 2023 base.