Africa could be poised for economic outperformance similar to India’s
Underrated Africa may, like India, confound its critics, writes Aashni Puri
Economists say markets go through economic cycles that are similar and are so predictable. The variability lies in the speed at which they follow this trajectory. By 2050, Africa will produce more GDP than the US and eurozone combined today. Why then is the world so sceptical about Africa’s growth? Africa is the second-largest continent, a land mass second to Asia. It is also the second most populous continent with nearly a billion people. Already, the world’s riskiest countries are in Latin America. Recent elections have shown over two-thirds of the continent has undergone multiparty democratic elections. Perhaps part of the problem is that too many people make the inequitable comparison of Africa to the West instead of emerging markets at similar social and economic levels. Why not contextualise Africa’s growth and use that to better evaluate its tenacity? Economists say Africa is where India was in the early 1990s. Two decades after India gained independence, economic growth was ...
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