Anyway, Africa is growing: Stable, Vulnerable and Slow Growers.
March 2, 2018
Africa is continually evolving: even if its GDP weighs little in comparison with the world’s wealth, it increased at a rate of 3.3% each year from 2010 to 2015, and, from 2000 to 2010, had even bigger rates, reaching 5.4%.
As the report “World Economic Outlook: Too Slow for Too Long” states, there are groups of countries called “Stable Growers”, like Botswana, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana and Kenya, which are growing at a constant rate and which today are worth 19% of African total GDP.
Then there are “Vulnerable Growers”, like Nigeria, Angola and Zambia: all countries with great potentialities and which are worth 35% of the total GDP, but whose economies are intrinsically linked to the production of raw materials – especially petroleum -, a very volatile trade market which, in last 7 years, has undergone a strong recession.
Finally, there are “Slow Growers”, like all northern Arabian nations and South Africa, which are worth 47% of GDP, but which are undergoing a long period of slow growth and increase in the unemployment rate, because of political or structural reasons.
Africa is a three-speeds continent, whose total growth swings from 3% to 4% a year, which is not enough to create a widespread wealth.
There is an element that we should not underestimate: if in Africa a little but constant growth keeps on going on, it means that a new middle class is beginning to move.
