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The lion kings?

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mwkruse
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Economist: The lion kings?

Africa is now one of the world’s fastest-growing regions.

MUCH has been written about the rise of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and the shift in economic power eastward as Asia outruns the rest of the world. But the surprising success story of the past decade lies elsewhere. An analysis by The Economist finds that over the ten years to 2010, no fewer than six of the world’s ten fastest-growing economies were in sub-Saharan Africa (see table).

The only BRIC country to make the top ten was China, in second place behind Angola. The other five African sprinters were Nigeria, Ethiopia, Chad, Mozambique and Rwanda, all with annual growth rates of around 8% or more. During the two decades to 2000 only one African economy (Uganda) made the top ten, against nine from Asia. On IMF forecasts Africa will grab seven of the top ten places over the next five years (our ranking excludes countries with a population of less than 10m as well as Iraq and Afghanistan, which could both rebound strongly in the years ahead). …

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Comments

3 responses to “The lion kings?”

  1. Dana Ames Avatar
    Dana Ames

    I’ve heard that the Chinese are all over Africa, exploiting resources every bit as much as western “colonial powers” used to.
    Dana

    Reply
  2. Michael W. Kruse Avatar
    Michael W. Kruse

    Yes. There is some concern that growth in some places will be primarily natural resource driven (oil, minerals), which tends to generate repression and great inequality in emerging nations. Still, other reports I’ve read do show that several of these nations are making progress to widely shared economic growth.

    Reply
  3. phil_style Avatar
    phil_style

    Dana, yuo’re right that chinese enterprises are investing in Africa, but that’s far from the full story.
    For decades, many commentators have been crying out for improved roading and rail in africa. Road transport is one of the key elements in allowing the growth of urban areas and flow of goods to markets. It’s taken a long time since independence from Europe for much of Africa to start investing seriously in roading. The current projects along the west african highway (angloa etc..) show that the roads are being built now. Economic growth will, almost undoubtedly follow.

    Reply

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