Since 2000, China and India have replaced the OECD as the engine of global economic growth. This post, however, discusses an even more exciting picture that may be going on under the radar. Growth in sub-Saharan Africa has more than doubled to 6%, while population growth is slowing. With the region now home to one third of the world’s fastest growing economies, it might be time for the narrative of Africa’s growth to change.
Long-run data on inequality within and across countries from the 1820s allow a Rawlsian look at the world: how well off are the poorest in society? This post calculates GDP per capita of the poorest 10% of a society for a selection of world regions. This perspective makes Africa’s plight even more baffling, given that its poorest citizens were better off than those of any other developing region up to 1914. Its poorest citizens now are no better off than its poorest citizens then.
A review of the IMF’s April 2009 World Economic Outlook, and an analysis of the fastest growing – and contracting – economies of 2009. The 2009 economic growth in Africa and Asia is welcome, and growth (albeit weaker) in China and India indicates the beginnings of self-sustaining domestic demand in those economies.
