{
  "title": "West Africa: Economic Recovery and Beyond",
  "publication": "IMF Blog, November 2, 2010",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2010/11/02/west-africa-economic-recovery-and-beyond",
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  "summary": "My IMF colleagues and I have spent the past week or so traveling through Africa for the launch of our October 2010 Regional Economic Outlook on sub-Saharan Africa. Both the outlook for Africa, and reactions to it, have been very positive.",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Economic growth",
      "content": "- IMF mission launched the October 2010 Regional Economic Outlook on sub-Saharan Africa; reactions were \"very positive.\"\n- The central message: \"Africa’s resilience to the global economic crisis has owed much to good policy management here, both before and during the crisis.\"\n- West African countries \"fared relatively well during the global financial crisis.\" The slowdown was \"mild\" and growth rates \"appear to have already bounced back to their pre-crisis levels.\"\n- Long-term difference: \"West Africa hasn’t been able to move into, and sustain, the higher rates of economic growth needed to make serious inroads in job creation and poverty reduction.\""
    },
    {
      "heading": "Growth challenge",
      "content": "- Comparative focus: eight countries of the West Africa Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) — Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo — compared with other countries in sub-Saharan Africa.\n- WAEMU features: single trading block, single stable currency over the last fifteen years, and \"benefited from low inflation.\"\n- Performance summary:\n  - \"Over the past fifteen years per capita incomes grew, on average, by less than 1 percent each year.\"\n  - \"In sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, the growth rate has been more than twice that; and more than four times that in the region’s highest growers.\"\n- No single explanatory factor identified: not attributable solely to initial income levels, natural resource endowments, location, or primarily to global forces (world trade or prices)."
    },
    {
      "heading": "What's holding back growth?",
      "content": "- Four noteworthy impediments identified:\n  - Political instability:\n    - \"Periods of political instability were associated with particularly lackluster performance\" in slower-growing WAEMU countries — Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Niger and Togo.\n    - Political instability complicated macroeconomic management.\n  - Low investment:\n    - \"Private investment rates in most WAEMU countries have been noticeably lower than in other sub-Saharan African countries\" — low investment in both public and private sectors, with \"relatively little foreign direct investment.\"\n  - Weak business environment and governance:\n    - \"Perceptions of governance remain weak.\"\n    - WAEMU countries have ranked low in the World Bank’s Doing Business Survey and other composite indicators.\n  - Inadequate physical infrastructure and weak public services:\n    - Shortfalls \"especially in education and health.\"\n    - \"Underinvestment in physical and human capital undermines the private sector’s ability to produce goods and services efficiently.\""
    },
    {
      "heading": "Actions to raise growth (policy recommendations)",
      "content": "- Political stability:\n  - \"Political stability is a necessary precondition for macroeconomic stability and sustaining improved performance.\"\n- Infrastructure and human capital:\n  - Upgrade \"weak energy and transport infrastructure.\"\n  - Improve \"health and education standards.\"\n- Governance and business environment:\n  - Ensure \"good governance, including market-friendly regulations, effective financial sector supervision, and enforcement of laws\" to support a more competitive private sector.\n- Fiscal and investment strategy:\n  - Make room for \"higher pro-growth government expenditure\" by:\n    - Increasing revenues so critical investments can be made.\n    - Building capacity to safely attract and manage private finance.\n    - Improving the quality of spending.\n  - Improve budget institutions, with emphasis on:\n    - \"Improving financial management, prioritizing expenditures, and ensuring their high quality.\"\n- Evidence of progress:\n  - \"The four higher-growing WAEMU countries—Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Senegal—performed significantly better in the last fifteen years than they did in the fifteen years before that.\"\n  - IMF expresses confidence that \"the region as a whole can realize its potential for higher growth, more jobs, and faster poverty reduction.\"\n\nSource: West Africa: Economic Recovery and Beyond (IMF blog post, Mark Plant, November 2, 2010)\n\n---\n\n\n References\n\n- Regional Economic Outlook\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2010/11/02/west-africa-economic-recovery-and-beyond"
    }
  ],
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    "Authors: Mark Plant",
    "Published: November 2, 2010",
    "IMF mission launched the October 2010 Regional Economic Outlook on sub-Saharan Africa; reactions were \"very positive.\"",
    "The central message: \"Africa’s resilience to the global economic crisis has owed much to good policy management here, both before and during the crisis.\"",
    "West African countries \"fared relatively well during the global financial crisis.\" The slowdown was \"mild\" and growth rates \"appear to have already bounced back to their pre-crisis levels.\"",
    "Long-term difference: \"West Africa hasn’t been able to move into, and sustain, the higher rates of economic growth needed to make serious inroads in job creation and poverty reduction.\"",
    "Comparative focus: eight countries of the West Africa Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) — Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo — compared with other countries in sub-Saharan Africa.",
    "WAEMU features: single trading block, single stable currency over the last fifteen years, and \"benefited from low inflation.\"",
    "Performance summary:",
    "No single explanatory factor identified: not attributable solely to initial income levels, natural resource endowments, location, or primarily to global forces (world trade or prices).",
    "Four noteworthy impediments identified:",
    "Political stability:",
    "Infrastructure and human capital:",
    "Governance and business environment:",
    "Fiscal and investment strategy:",
    "Evidence of progress:",
    "[Regional Economic Outlook](http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/reo/2010/AFR/eng/sreo1010.htm)"
  ],
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