Evaluation of macroeconomic performance of Sub-Saharan africa countries with MCDM methods

SSA countries were significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic that erupted in 2020, like many other countries. Although macroeconomic performance was severely weakened during the COVID-19 period, it was positively affected by the expansionary policies implemented in the period following COVID-19 pandemic. However, after a while, it was again disturbed and fluctuated. So, the research conducted to evaluate macroeconomic performance of SSA countries, considering the period pre- and during COVID-19. For this purpose, Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods, including Entropy, CRITIC and MEREC as weighting methods, and MARCOS, MOORA, TOPSIS and CoCoSo, are used as ranking methods. The results of ranking orders of countries are different, so the BORDA method is used to unify the final ranking. Moreover, to compare the effect of each MCDM method to the final ranking, the Taylor diagram is utilised. The results of this research revealed that South Africa, Nigeria achieved the most successful macroeconomic performance, while the worst-ranked country with the lowest macroeconomic performance was Zimbabwe and Gambia. The ranks of other countries are changing more or less with respect to the MCDM methods used. The BORDA method, which offers the unify ranking, has the capability to provide clear information to decision-makers. As with all MCDM methods, BORDA ranked the best and worst countries in similar positions. Therefore, it can be concluded that countries with strong macroeconomic performance have always maintained their top positions in the rankings of the MCDM methods used. Because of this, it is recommended that countries improve their performance so as to rank highly in terms of macroeconomic performance. The differences obtained from MCDM methods are natural due to their own algorithms. Therefore, it will be beneficial for decision-makers to use more than one MCDM method. So, it is recommended to use the BORDA method. The Taylor diagram's findings demonstrated that the TOPSIS and CoCoSo approaches yield more accurate findings. So, TOPSIS and CoCoSo methods are also recommended to be used alongside other MCDM methods in future studies. Keywords: Macroeconomic performance, Sub-Saharan Africa countries, MARCOS, TOPSIS, CoCoSo