The recent movements in the dollar-naira exchange rate, following the removal of the currency peg, has stimulated ongoing debate in the media that South Africa has regained its position as the largest economy in Africa. The prevailing notion is that the depreciation of the naira and simultaneous appreciation of the rand against the US dollar implies that South Africa’s GDP has surpassed that of Nigeria. However, this argument needs some re-examination, given that the value of the GDP (in current US$) is sensitive to the choice of exchange rate and GDP figures used for its computation. This piece situates the present argument in the context of recent commodity market crisis and its implications for the two largest economies in Sub-Saharan Africa
Policy Brief & Alerts
March 11, 2018
A Note On The Economic Downturn In Sub-Saharan Africa
The recent movements in the dollar-naira exchange rate, following the removal of the currency peg, has stimulated ongoing debate in the media that South Africa has regained its position as the largest economy in Africa. The prevailing notion is that the depreciation of the naira and simultaneous appreciation of the rand against the US dollar […]
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Export Commodity Prices And Long-Run Growth Of Primary Commodities-Based African Economies
There
is a link between primary commodity export prices and economic performance.
Many African economies are primary commodities export biased, often in few
primary commodities. Previous studies focus on the impact of commodity prices
on growth in Africa with little attention paid to different primary commodities
and level of diversification in primary commodities export. This study,
investigates the effect of primary commodity prices on the long-run growth of 24
primary commodities-based African economies; by commodity types and level of
diversification in primary commodities exports.