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Abstract
The debate on current economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) contains two opposing poles: One position claims that African countries are on their way to catching up with richer parts of the world. The other argues that no structural changes have occurred, and that continued dependency on commodity exports will push African economies further into poverty traps, while economic enclave sectors blossom. This article surveys challenges in promoting inclusive growth and creating employment, and goes on to assess how countries' economic vulnerability has developed, as measured by the economic vulnerability index used by the United Nations for classification of ‘least developed country’ status. Improvements are found for several African countries as well as for SSA on average, despite simultaneous increases in the average export concentration. This broader measure shows structural conditions for economic growth to have improved for SSA on average and for many of its countries.
Notes on contributor and acknowledgements
Mats Hårsmar is senior researcher and leader for the research cluster ‘African International Links’ at the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala, Sweden. He has formerly served as chief analyst for development policies at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.The author wishes to thank colleagues at the Nordic Africa Institute, especially Kjell J. Havnevik for valuable comments on earlier versions. The responsibility for the final text rests with the author.
Notes
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