Growth rates in African economies catching up with rest of world

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MIDRAND, South Africa, Nov 15 (Agencies): Growth rates in sub-Saharan African economies are finally catching up with the rest of the world after lagging behind for the last three decadeds, a World Bank report said yesterday.
Long periods of decay and stagnation in 1970s, 80s and early 90s have now been replaced by steady growth which will help the continent win the battle against poverty, said the report which was released near Johannesburg.
"Over the past decade, Africa has recorded an average growth rate of 5.4 per cent which is at par with the rest of the world," said Obiageli Ezekwesili, World Bank vice-president for Africa.
"The ability to support, sustain and in fact diversify the sources of these growth indicators would be critical not to Africa's capacity to meet (United Nations poverty targets) but also to becoming an exciting investment destination for global capital."
The continent's overall economic performance was helped in large part by the rise in revenue from oil exporters such as Equatorial Guinea which saw Gross Domestic Product grow by 30.8 per cent between 1996 annd 2005, while Angola saw a rise of 8.5 per cent in GDP during the same period.
John Page, the World Bank's chief economist for Africa, said the figures showed how "for the first time in three decades, they (African economies) are growing in tandem with the rest of the world".
While resource-rich countries were benefitting from a rise in global prices, countries that were not blessed with big reserves were also peforming well.
"Leading the way are the oil and mineral exporters, thanks to high prices," said Page. "But 18 non-mineral economies, with 36 per cent of sub-Saharan people, have also been doing well."
Oil exports grew from 16.7 per cent in 2003 to 21.6 in 2004, to 19.2 in 2005 but fell to 13.5 last year, according to the report. Non-oil exports inched from 4.5 per cent in 2003 to 7.1 last year.
Page told reporters at the unveiling of the report that greater stability and improvements in governance across the continent had been a major factor in enabling countries to take advantage of global economic growth.
"Volatility in the growth of African economies between 1975 and 2005 was far higher than in any other region of the world.
Accelerations in growth during that period was usually followed by collapses," he said.
"But since 1995, African countries have learnt to avoid growth collapses."
Speaking about the situation in Zimbabwe, where annual inflation is now nearly 8,000 per cent, Page said solutions could not be imposed from outside.
"The people of Zimbabwe and its government will have to to come to a conclusion on how to resolve their economic problems," he said.
Meanwhile, Sino-African trade is likely to hit 100 billion US dollars before 2010, sooner than Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao forecast last year, said Wei Jianguo, Deputy Minister of Commerce, yesterday.
Trade between China and Africa reached 52.3 billion US dollars in the first nine months and would surpass 70 billion US dollars by year end, Wei told a press conference on the follow-up programmes of the Beijing summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held last November. The figure rose to 55.5 billion US dollars last year, up from 40 billion US dollars in 2005 and 10 billion US dollars in 2000.
"Since the summit, cooperation between China and Africa has expanded rapidly, with more and more fields involved," Wei said.
Official statistics showed that 454 types of African products now received zero-tariff treatment. China was also preparing to launch the construction of three trade and economic cooperation zones in Africa this year.
It was also planning to dispatch 100 senior experts specialising in agricultural technologies to Africa within three years. Wei said 52 were bound for the continent by year end.
Chinese President Hu Jintao announced at the summit eight measures to consolidate a "new type of strategic partnership" between China and Africa. These included further opening China's markets to Africa's least developed countries.