By Sujata Rao
Sat 14 Apr 2007
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa will accelerate this year to 6.7 percent, the highest in a decade, but more reform is essential if the gains are to stabilise and broaden, the IMF said on Friday.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its annual report on sub-Saharan Africa that while oil-exporting countries would likely see their economies expand by 10 percent or more, non-oil states will also grow by around 5 percent in 2007. More...
See comments section for my response
1 comment:
Despite this economic growth, gloomy predictions are constantly made about Sub-Saharan Africa. In the 2005 Human Development Report, the United Nations Development Programme tells us that if current trends in international trade and aid continue, Sub-Saharan Africa will not meet the 2015 Millennium Development Goals targets. The MDGs thresholds define only the bare minimum social services required by the people to lift them out of abject poverty and not prosperity level. Therefore, if we cannot meet the bare minimum level required to lift people out of poverty, then what is the use of these so-called economic growths.
But it is good that these numbers are published because then they very well debunk the myth that economic structural reforms and economic growth automatically lead to prosperity. I think we need to look at the ownership of that wealth and to whose use it accrues to understand why Africa registers economic growth but their people still remain poor.
Also, we need to understand how the wealth is distributed. If a few rich persons make wonderful profits, this raises the nation's per capita gross domestic product and the per capita income levels – just on paper. When these indices are reported, we are portrayed as having all benefited from the profits of the few rich. We know that we would have not save for the few rich. Practically, the situation of Africa vindicates my argument. While we have had economic growths, the UNDP states that we are the only continent in the world where the situation is getting worse. Why would it not be so with the kind of international trade; the big foreign owned businesses continue to exploit our resources and do not want to give back and many times engage in tax evasion. Wages are being depressed and benefits disappearing. Mechanisation is eliminating ever-larger numbers of people out of employment.
Post a Comment