Introduction: Understanding Africa’s Regional Trade

Mthuli Ncube, Issa Faye and Audrey Verdier-Chouchane

A chapter in Regional Integration and Trade in Africa, 2015, pp 1-14 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Africa has registered growth rates of more than 5% annually over the past decade (2004–2014), with a third of African countries averaging 6.5% growth per year (African Development Bank et al., 2014). This current growth pattern has brought Africa to a turning point, if not a tipping point, in its development trajectory. A more globalized world economy has brought increasing functional and spatial specialization, as well as growing interdependence, and vulnerability of national economies to external shocks. Meanwhile, a process of de-industrialization in the developed world has been paralleled by an increasing competitiveness of developing countries in manufacturing. The changing structure of the global economy requires Africa to integrate in order to survive. Translating economic gains into sustainable and shared growth requires Africa to connect its markets, deepen Regional Integration (RI) and enhance national competitiveness (World Economic Forum et al., 2013). Embedding RI into Africa’s development agenda, whether in the form of preferential trading area or economic and monetary union, will move African economies to the next stage of competitiveness and integration in the global economy as befits the continent’s rise.

Keywords: Gross Domestic Product; Trade Policy; Bilateral Trade; Monetary Union; Currency Union (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-46205-3_1

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781137462053

DOI: 10.1057/9781137462053_1

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().