Africa, some sobering numbers
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1. With 10% of the world's population, 1% of the global GDP and <10%
of primary exports of all developing counties, in 2002, Africa pro-
duced the same type of commodities and exported them to the same mar-
kets as it did in the 1970s and 80s.
2. In no other continent is poverty more pervasive than in Africa. In
2000, out of a population of 765 million people, about 350 million
lived on <$1/day. This places Africa as the continent with the high-
est share of poor people and that figure is on the rise. [In E. Asia
and the Pacific the proportion of poor people fell from 27 to 15 %
between 1990 and 1998; in Latinamerica/Caribbean it also fell from 17
to 12%; in South Asia it fell from 44 to 40%; in SS Africa it rose
from 47 to 48%.
3. In terms of the Human Development Index, in 1998, only S. Africa,
Botswana, Gabon, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Kenya and the R of Congo had
HDIs between 0.5 and 0.7; all others were below 0.5. More than half
of low HDI countries are in the continent.
4. The continent's debt stood at 334 billion dollars in 2000. That
same year, the debt to GDP ratio was 58% and the debt to export ratio
182% while debt servicing, as a % of exports was >16%. Tanzania
spends 9x more on debt repayment than on health and 4x more than on
education. In all of Africa, some 8 bill dollars are being paid every
year while 5-6 billion is due but rescheduled. In Zaire and Zambia,
the arrears alone account for 30% of outstanding debt.
5. Africa's terms of trade have continued to be weak and plunged by
0.5%/yr on average between 1980 and 1990 and 0.3%/yr between 1991 and
1999.
Claudio Schuftan
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
mailto:aviva@netnam.vn
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