Evan Pickworth
Evan Pickworth
Africa remains on the march to economic prosperity with growth of 6percent expected this year from the 5,6percent experienced last year, said the United Nations (UN) in their southern African launch of the mid-year World Economic Situation and Prospects report on Monday.
"Strong growth is expected to continue into 2008. Africa's good recent growth record represents a major turnaround from the previous decades of Africa's economic stagnation," the report said.
Rising mining outputs and increases in investment and infrastructure growth were highlighted as key benefits for Africa in the period ahead by Robert Vos, director of the UN's development policy and analysis division.
But the UN highlighted that the growth in Africa was not fast enough to meet the millennium development goals, with the report noting that 44 developing countries did not manage to reach a growth rate of 3percent in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.
"This group includes a large number of African countries, suggesting that economic development in these countries falls short of what is considered necessary by Nepad and international agencies to achieve the millennium development goals," said the UN.
The report highlighted that the growth of Africa's eco-nomy continues to stem largely from developments in a few big economies in the region, namely Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa.
"All these economies, except Morocco, will expand at almost 5percent or more this year," said the report. - I-Net Bridge
Africa expected to hit 6% growth this year
Evan Pickworth
Evan Pickworth
Africa remains on the march to economic prosperity with growth of 6percent expected this year from the 5,6percent experienced last year, said the United Nations (UN) in their southern African launch of the mid-year World Economic Situation and Prospects report on Monday.
"Strong growth is expected to continue into 2008. Africa's good recent growth record represents a major turnaround from the previous decades of Africa's economic stagnation," the report said.
Rising mining outputs and increases in investment and infrastructure growth were highlighted as key benefits for Africa in the period ahead by Robert Vos, director of the UN's development policy and analysis division.
But the UN highlighted that the growth in Africa was not fast enough to meet the millennium development goals, with the report noting that 44 developing countries did not manage to reach a growth rate of 3percent in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.
"This group includes a large number of African countries, suggesting that economic development in these countries falls short of what is considered necessary by Nepad and international agencies to achieve the millennium development goals," said the UN.
The report highlighted that the growth of Africa's eco-nomy continues to stem largely from developments in a few big economies in the region, namely Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa.
"All these economies, except Morocco, will expand at almost 5percent or more this year," said the report. - I-Net Bridge
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