africa

Yale Center for the Study of Globalization
5.3.1 Macroeconomic performance
Since the beginning of this millennium economic growth in SSA has been nothing
short of spectacular. Per capita GDP growth in SSA underwent a quantum jump
from long-term stagnation (0.14 percent annual growth between 1960 and 2000)
to around 3 percent between 2000 and 2010. Out of the sample of 37 countries for
which continuous time series were available in the World Bank’s World Development
Indicators, 32 countries reported higher growth rates 6 in the most recent period (2000-
12) than in the preceding decade (1990-2000); 3 countries showed essentially no
change; 7 and only 2 countries showed a worsening growth performance (Benin and
Togo). Examples of spectacular improvements in per capita GDP annual growth at
the country level between 1990-2000 and 2000-12 are provided by Angola, where
growth improved from –2 percent to 10.4 percent; Ethiopia, from –0.5 percent to 7
percent; and Nigeria, from 0.2 percent to 4.3 percent.
The spell of rapid growth described above fueled a significant reduction in the
incidence of poverty. For the whole SSA region, the poverty headcount ratio at the
US$1.25/day poverty line (i.e. the proportion of the population below that poverty
line) fell from 58 percent in 1999 to 48.5 percent in 2010. Yet, on the downside, and
pushed by still strong demographic trends, the estimated absolute number of poor
continued to rise from 377 million to 414 million over the same period. 8
Next to Latin America, the African subcontinent has the highest level of income
inequality in the world. AfDB (2012) reports that the Gini coefficient of income
inequality in SSA rose from 0.43 in 2000-04 to 0.46 in 2006-09. There is little evidence
to suggest that inequality is falling. If anything it remains persistently high.
Out of the 26 countries for which the World Bank’s Povcalnet dataset reports at
least two observations between the early 2000s and around 2010, approximately
as many countries recorded rising as falling Gini coefficients (Thorbecke, 2014).
South Africa may well have the dubious distinction of possessing the highest income
inequality in the world.
Thus far the evidence presented on socioeconomic performance in SSA during the
current growth spell has focused on macroeconomic income-based and monetary
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