Real Peculiarities of African Economies
Real Peculiarities of African Economies:
It is clear that Africa suffers from chronic failure of economic growth. A set of factors have frequently been raised to account for Africa`s poor economic performance, they include, but not limited to;
* External conditions emanating from the legacy of centuries of slave trading and colonial rule as well as manipulation of African politics during the cold war.
* Heavy dependence on a small number of primary exports coupled with declines and volatility of terms of trade
* Internal politics characterized by authoritarian, corrupt and political instability
* Adverse economic policies in the shape of protectionism, statism and fiscal misalignments.
* Social conditions and demographic challenges that includes and not limited to deep ethnic diversity, indicated by high ethnolinquistics and religious diversity, and high population growth rate
Since 1980`s aggregate per Capita GDP in SSA has declined at almost 1% per annum. This is widespread and 32 countries are poorer today than in 1980. It is clear that Afric`s poor economic growth has been chronic rather than episodic. No wonder it is labeled the Dark Continent.
Circumstances in Developed countries in their early stages of economic development are substantially different from those of countries in SSA. Developed countries used a broad range of economic approaches in their development strategies. Countries in SSA more often than not, try to use economic policies prescribed by the developed countries without posing to evaluate the compatibility of this policies with their current circumstances.
The above factors form the real peculiarities of African economies which pre-dispose it to slow growth, they can be summarized as:
* Lack of openness to International trade * Adverse Geographical characteristics * Demographic Challenges * Poor Institutional quality * High Ethnic diversity * Low savings rat
Thus, there
It is clear that Africa suffers from chronic failure of economic growth. A set of factors have frequently been raised to account for Africa`s poor economic performance, they include, but not limited to;
* External conditions emanating from the legacy of centuries of slave trading and colonial rule as well as manipulation of African politics during the cold war.
* Heavy dependence on a small number of primary exports coupled with declines and volatility of terms of trade
* Internal politics characterized by authoritarian, corrupt and political instability
* Adverse economic policies in the shape of protectionism, statism and fiscal misalignments.
* Social conditions and demographic challenges that includes and not limited to deep ethnic diversity, indicated by high ethnolinquistics and religious diversity, and high population growth rate
Since 1980`s aggregate per Capita GDP in SSA has declined at almost 1% per annum. This is widespread and 32 countries are poorer today than in 1980. It is clear that Afric`s poor economic growth has been chronic rather than episodic. No wonder it is labeled the Dark Continent.
Circumstances in Developed countries in their early stages of economic development are substantially different from those of countries in SSA. Developed countries used a broad range of economic approaches in their development strategies. Countries in SSA more often than not, try to use economic policies prescribed by the developed countries without posing to evaluate the compatibility of this policies with their current circumstances.
The above factors form the real peculiarities of African economies which pre-dispose it to slow growth, they can be summarized as:
* Lack of openness to International trade * Adverse Geographical characteristics * Demographic Challenges * Poor Institutional quality * High Ethnic diversity * Low savings rat
Thus, there
References: 1. David E. Bloom, Jeffrey D. Sachs, Paul Collier, Christopher Udry from Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Vol. 1998, No. 2, (1998), pp. 207-295 on “Geography, Demography, and Economic Growth in Africa” 2. Gordon P. Hagbert from the Annals’ of American Academy of political and social science 1961, Vol 335 on “The peculiarities of Geography: Africa” 3. Jeffrey D. Sachs and Andrew M. Warner from the journal of African economies, December 1997, Volume 6, Number 3, pp. 335-376 the “sources of slow growth in African Economies” 4. Paul Collier and Jan Willem Gunning from the Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 13, No. 3, (summer 1999) on “why Africa has Grown Slowly) 5. Winford H. Masanjala and Chris Papageorgiou from the Department of Economics, Louisania State University working Paper 2006-01 on “initial conditions, European Colonialism and Africa`s growth” 6. World Bank Report, December 2011, edition 5, on “The state of Kenyan Economy”