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We take a look at the economic growth rates (both achieved) and forecasted for 2016 and 2017 for African countries on a animated interactive map. This is part of our world map statistics initiative. While South Africa might be the most industrialised and developed economy in Africa, it is not the biggest economy on the continent (that title belongs to Nigeria), and it is not the fast growing on the continent either.
Note some graphics might not show due to changes made to source location of iframe's outside our control |
Africa Interactive Map
The map below shows most African countries annual economic growth rates (from 2005 up to an IMF forecast for 2017). The data is obtained from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). For countries with grey colouring and 0% growth rates, no data was available from the IMF for these countries.
South Africa
For South African's there are both positives and negatives in the map above. While South Africa has not seen wild swings in growth rates such as those seen by Chad, South Sudan and Zimbabwe, South Africa has not seen very strong growth rates either as those experienced by Angola, Ethiopia and Mozambique.
While South Africa is the most industrialised economy on the continent, it does shield it to some extent from wild swings in economic growth rates, it does seem to hold it back in terms of achieving better growth rates when compared to it's African peers. One has to wonder if the extremely restrictive labour laws and large labour union presence in South Africa is placing a damper on their economic performance?
In fact South Africa's growth rate from 2004 to the 2017f (forecast) is just 2.7%. Less than half of what it's government is hoping for.
While South Africa is the most industrialised economy on the continent, it does shield it to some extent from wild swings in economic growth rates, it does seem to hold it back in terms of achieving better growth rates when compared to it's African peers. One has to wonder if the extremely restrictive labour laws and large labour union presence in South Africa is placing a damper on their economic performance?
In fact South Africa's growth rate from 2004 to the 2017f (forecast) is just 2.7%. Less than half of what it's government is hoping for.
South Africa is growing far below it's own government's aim of 6% per year. This is the growth rate they believe they need to achieve to significantly reduce the persistently high unemployment rate they are experiencing. Perhaps there is a message to be sent to South African policy makers, time to relook current economic policies, as the current policies are not even close to delivering the required growth rates. Perhaps policies such as BBBEE and employment equity (EE) should be placed on the back burner as it seems to be doing the economy no favours.
South Africa has a well diversified economy (with it being far less reliant of Agriculture than some of the other African countries), with a strong finance sector, decent manufacturing sector (although this is declining steadily over time) and strong transport sector in place. With it having the best infrastructure in place it is concerning that it is not able to grow their economy at a faster pace, especially considering the advantages it has over its African peers.
South Africa has a well diversified economy (with it being far less reliant of Agriculture than some of the other African countries), with a strong finance sector, decent manufacturing sector (although this is declining steadily over time) and strong transport sector in place. With it having the best infrastructure in place it is concerning that it is not able to grow their economy at a faster pace, especially considering the advantages it has over its African peers.
Other countries
This section will highlight a few African countries and look at the performance of various regions or trade groupings such as Southern African Customs Union (SACU), The Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the East African Community.
Ethiopia achieved the highest average growth rate over the period (2004 to 2017f), with an average growth rate over this period of 10.1%, while South Sudan achieved the lowest growth rate of -3.3% (but with this being a relatively new state it's numbers should be looked at with caution). If South Sudan is excluded from the analysis the country that achieved the lowest growth rate is the Central African Republic with an average growth rate of just 0.7%.
Other noteworthy performers include Angola with 8.6%, Rwanda with 7.6% and Chad with 6.4%. Those who struggled (excluding South Sudan) are Zimbabwe with 1.3%, Eritrea with 2.2% and Guinea with 2.6%
When the average growth rate of all African countries for which figures are readily available from the IMF is looked at , the continent's average growth rate from 2004 to the 2017f is 4.5% (note this is not a weighted average based on the size of each country's economy. Its a simple average that sums the average of all the growth rates and divides it by the number of countries in question).
South Africa is thus under performing it's African peers by 1.8% per year. No wonder countries such as Nigeria and Egypt has overtaken South Africa is the biggest economy in Africa. South Africa currently sits as the third biggest economy in Africa (behind Nigeria and recently overtaken by Egypt).
Ethiopia achieved the highest average growth rate over the period (2004 to 2017f), with an average growth rate over this period of 10.1%, while South Sudan achieved the lowest growth rate of -3.3% (but with this being a relatively new state it's numbers should be looked at with caution). If South Sudan is excluded from the analysis the country that achieved the lowest growth rate is the Central African Republic with an average growth rate of just 0.7%.
Other noteworthy performers include Angola with 8.6%, Rwanda with 7.6% and Chad with 6.4%. Those who struggled (excluding South Sudan) are Zimbabwe with 1.3%, Eritrea with 2.2% and Guinea with 2.6%
When the average growth rate of all African countries for which figures are readily available from the IMF is looked at , the continent's average growth rate from 2004 to the 2017f is 4.5% (note this is not a weighted average based on the size of each country's economy. Its a simple average that sums the average of all the growth rates and divides it by the number of countries in question).
South Africa is thus under performing it's African peers by 1.8% per year. No wonder countries such as Nigeria and Egypt has overtaken South Africa is the biggest economy in Africa. South Africa currently sits as the third biggest economy in Africa (behind Nigeria and recently overtaken by Egypt).
While looking at highest and lowest growth rates achieved, another variable on should look at is the stability of the growth rates. Just how stable is the growth rates? Is it extremely variable or is it consistent over time. Countries would ideally like to have stable growth rates and not highly variable swings in growth rates, as this makes planning and budgeting so much harder if one is constantly unsure about the growth rates.
The country with the highest variance in its annual GDP growth rates (excluding South Sudan) is Equatorial Guinea and suprisingly the country with the most stable economic growth rate is one of South Africa's neighbours, Mozambique. While South Africa has a relatively stable growth rate, they are trumped by countries such as Mozambique, Tanzania, Lesotho and Kenya who all showed more stable growth rates over the period 2004 to 2017f
The country with the highest variance in its annual GDP growth rates (excluding South Sudan) is Equatorial Guinea and suprisingly the country with the most stable economic growth rate is one of South Africa's neighbours, Mozambique. While South Africa has a relatively stable growth rate, they are trumped by countries such as Mozambique, Tanzania, Lesotho and Kenya who all showed more stable growth rates over the period 2004 to 2017f
Trade regions/groupings
The line chart below looks at various trade unions/groupings and their economic performance over time, in order to determine of specific regions performed better over time than some of the other regions. And the picture it paint's is pretty clear. Two regions performed markedly better than the other two regions. More details below the graphic
The four regions included in the graph above are:
Based on the data as shown in the graphic above, both ECOWAS and the East African Community achieved an average growth rate of 6.1% per year fom 2004 to 2017f, while CEMAC grew at an average rate of 4.2% and SACU (if which South Africa is part) grew at the lowest rate of the four regions with growth coming in at just 2.8%
In terms of variablity in the growth rates, the East African community had the least amount of variance in their growth rate while CEMAC had the highest variance in terms of their growth rate. SACU had second highest amount of variance in their growth (and the lowest growth rate), just showing the poor performance of the region compared to the rest of the continent.
Perhaps Southern African leaders and policy makers should make a point of visiting East African leaders and policy makers in order to find out how they are going about achieving their stellar and stable growth rates, as what ever the leaders in the SACU region is doing, it is not holding a candle to them and change is needed quickly if greater growth rates are to be achieved.
- The Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC)
- East African Community
- Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
- Southern African Customs Union (SACU)
Based on the data as shown in the graphic above, both ECOWAS and the East African Community achieved an average growth rate of 6.1% per year fom 2004 to 2017f, while CEMAC grew at an average rate of 4.2% and SACU (if which South Africa is part) grew at the lowest rate of the four regions with growth coming in at just 2.8%
In terms of variablity in the growth rates, the East African community had the least amount of variance in their growth rate while CEMAC had the highest variance in terms of their growth rate. SACU had second highest amount of variance in their growth (and the lowest growth rate), just showing the poor performance of the region compared to the rest of the continent.
Perhaps Southern African leaders and policy makers should make a point of visiting East African leaders and policy makers in order to find out how they are going about achieving their stellar and stable growth rates, as what ever the leaders in the SACU region is doing, it is not holding a candle to them and change is needed quickly if greater growth rates are to be achieved.