Mbabane- Eswatini’s limited integration into global trade and capital flows remains a structural weakness in its economic position, despite the country being classified as resilient in Rand Merchant Bank’s (RMB) latest assessment of African economies.
The Where to Invest in Africa 2026/27 report ranks Eswatini 30th out of 31 countries assessed, placing it one position above Zimbabwe and down from 29th in the previous edition.
The report identifies Eswatini’s small, landlocked economy and limited participation in international trade and capital flows as factors distinguishing it from better-positioned economies.
“Eswatini sits at the quadrant’s lower edge: a small, landlocked economy whose placement owes more to limited integration into global trade and capital flows than to the institutional depth that anchors its peers above it,” the report states.
The assessment highlights a distinction between economic resilience and the broader conditions that influence a country’s investment position. Although Eswatini features in the report’s low-vulnerability, high-resilience category, this has not translated into a strong overall ranking.
The report evaluates countries against four pillars: Economic Performance and Potential, Market Accessibility and Innovation, Investment Climate, and Social and Human Development.
Eswatini’s position suggests that resilience alone does not determine how an economy performs across the wider set of indicators used to assess investment destinations.
The country dropped one place in the latest rankings after improving from 30th to 29th between the 2024/25 and 2025/26 editions.
Seychelles retained first place for the third consecutive year, followed by Mauritius, Egypt and South Africa. Morocco, meanwhile, surpassed South Africa to become Africa’s highest-ranked industrial economy.
The report attributes Morocco’s performance to sustained industrial upgrading, export diversification and the implementation of strategic industrial policies. Its manufacturing base includes automotive and aerospace production, while phosphates and renewable energy also contribute to its economic structure.
The comparison highlights the importance of economic diversification and stronger links to international markets in shaping countries’ relative positions.
RMB Chief Economist Isaah Mhlanga said African economies were increasingly relying on policy reforms rather than commodity cycles alone to support growth.
“The 2026/27 RMB Where to Invest in Africa report finds that Africa is not merely navigating global turbulence; many countries are using it as a catalyst for transformation,” Mhlanga said.
He said the rankings increasingly reflected policy consistency, stronger institutions, economic diversification and improvements in governance.
Mhlanga also distinguished between resilience, which reflects policies, institutions and financial buffers built over time, and vulnerability, which reflects structural economic exposures.
For Eswatini, the report’s findings place the emphasis on the structural limitations affecting its position rather than vulnerability alone. However, the ranking does not, by itself, establish how much investment the country attracts or how individual investors assess its opportunities.
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