Have Imports Constrained Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa?

Lodewijk Berlage and Sophie Vandermeulen

Chapter 2 in International Trade, Foreign Direct Investment and the Economic Environment, 1998, pp 11-29 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract During the period 1961–1973 gross domestic product (GDP) of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) grew at an average annual rate of 4.6%. Between 1973 and 1980 the annual growth rate fell to an average of 2.7%. In the eighties there was a further slow-down: the average annual growth rate was only 2% (2.5% if Nigeria is excluded) whereas population increased at an annual rate of 3.1%; per capita income therefore declined.2 When trying to explain the deteriorating economic performance of SSA, one can distinguish between fundamental and immediate causes. Among the former are the political structure of pre-colonial African societies, the colonial heritage and the nature of contemporaneous African states (Cockcroft, 1990). Among the immediate causes of the deterioration are the unfavourable external environment, the loss of SSA’s share in world markets, the debt burden, government deficits, overregulation of economic activity and the ensuing disincentives for the private sector, in particular for agriculture.3

Keywords: Gross Domestic Product; Capital Stock; Foreign Exchange; Intermediate Good; Ivory Coast (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1998
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:978-1-349-14030-5_2

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781349140305

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-14030-5_2

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 ().