[经济学]Growth and Social Development of Africa in 2008 and Prospects in 2009.pdfVIP

Growth and Social Development in Africa in 2008 2 and Prospects for 2009 conomic performance in Africa slowed in 2008 and is projected to slow further Ein 2009. Africa’s economic downturn is spurred by the financial turmoil that originated in the USA and affected most countries of the world. For the continent as a whole, despite this decline, fiscal and current account balances have improved and domestic savings and investment rates increased. However, with high average fuel and food prices in 2008, Africa’s average inflation rate rose significantly, threatening macroeconomic stability and food security in many countries. The continent needs short-term measures to address the expected adverse conse- Africa’s quences of the global financial crisis and food shortages, as well as long-term meas- growth remains ures to accelerate and sustain the growth needed to achieve meaningful economic highly vulnerable to and social development in the future. Also, economic performance in Africa, driven external shocks mainly by revenues from oil and mineral exports in resource-rich countries, conceals considerable variation across countries and remains insufficient for Africa to meet the MDGs. In particular, Africa has to strengthen efforts to promote gender equality and women empowerment as factors that are strongly correlated with other social development goals. 2.1 Growth performance 2.1.1 Africa’s growth slows down in 2008 Economic growth in Africa slowed to 5.1 per cent in 2008, down from 6.0 per cent in 2007.1 Despite the deceleration, growth remains strong in view of the global economic slowdown ignited by the global financial turmoil. The main fac- tors underpinning the continent’s growth in 2008 are high commodity demand and prices, continued sound macroeconomic management and