Impressive Growth in Africa Under Peace and Market Reforms

Economic stagnation in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) led a number of economists to question the region's ability to attain sustained economic growth, some arguing for the need to shift away from primary exports. Yet, we find that low growth has not been common to all SSA countries and that those that maintained political stability and significantly liberalised their economies experienced high and relatively stable growth in income per capita, even as high generally as the growth seen in ASEAN-5 countries, while exporting mainly primary products. Our evidence, furthermore, does not support the argument that countries achieved political stability and liberalised their economies only when they already had good growth performance or strong growth determinants.