African Economy

African Economy  | read this item

54 African countries are estimated to be populated by 887 million people, that is 14% of the world’s population. The information is presented as of July, 2005. The data provided by the African Development Bank, Africa’s GDP amounted to S$2.572 trillion in 2007.

In fact, if we take Africa as a continent, its economy will turn out to be almost as big as that of Germany. However, if we remove South Africa and Egypt, that are considered to be the richest countries in Africa with a GDP equal to $467 billion and $404 billion, respectively, the economy will reduce by $1.7 trillion. With this figure it is certainly overrun by Germany and Italy as well, though not by the number of population.

Next come Nigeria with a $293 billion GDP and Algeria with a $224 billion. The country with the smallest economy turns out to be Liberia, which has only $1.3 billion.

If we have a look at GDP per capita that shows the level of richness of the average person in a country, Africa will go on the last place in the world, which means, it will be the poorest, with its $2,975.

In the list of the world’s top nations only Libya is included having a GDP per capita of $12,300. This is to compare to $45,000 in the US and $80,000 in Qatar, that is regarded as the richest nation per capita.

The poorest country in Africa as well as in the world in general is Zimbabwe. The country has $200 per capita GDP. Then go Congo at $300 GDP per capita and Liberia at $400 GDP per capita. It should be noted that Africa hosts sixteen poorest countries in the world.

African economy is mainly based on such sectors as agriculture, mining and construction, manufacturing, investment and banking, communication and IT. The biggest sector is agricultural that has 60 percent of employees involved. The majority of these people are subsistence farmers. In Africa, subsistence farmers get a small income to support their families. They produce minimal product. However, they are not able to re-invest in agriculture. Despite the fact, that Africa grows crops in big quantities, they mainly go for export to the Western countries and this condemns its population of many millions to starving of hunger.

Africa has very significant mining resources and exports minerals and petroleum. It also has in its disposal reserves of gold, diamonds and copper. The problem is that manufacturing is not on great scale in Africa. There can be named just three or four countries that do have substantial manufacturing sectors. The sector has only 15% of the total amount.

There is a difficult question to ask, as will Africa be able to overcome the financial crunch that is in power now all over the world. It turns out that African countries are the last to get global financial aid. In fact, Africa attracted Asian investors along with frontier investors. Experts say, that Africa was able to overcome the first phase of national crisis. But export demand and investments can be subjected to the adverse impact of the crisis. Thus, for instance, frontier investors have already made cuts on their investments in Africa. In case prices for the production going for export go down drastically, the economic situation of the continental will be damaged.

Topics: african countries, african development bank, African Economy, congo, gdp per capita, liberia, libya, poorest countries, poorest countries in the world, poorest country in africa, qatar, richest countries in africa, south africa