| By Gavin Chait,
on 14 January 2007
|
 Poverty in Africa remains entrenched
However, that still leaves Africa significantly short of making a stab at meeting its Millennium Development Goals for halving poverty.
"((Africa))'s growth remains insufficient to achieve development goals that will appreciably reduce ((poverty)) and improve living conditions on the continent," the report says.
"Most African countries have been unable to sustain sufficiently high growth rates over the medium term."
It said that from 1998 to 2006, only seven countries out of the 52 monitored by the ((UN))'s Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) achieved an average real gross domestic product growth rate of more than 7%. And too much of that growth has been as a result of volatile commodities, like oil, that raise significant revenue which does little for job creation, and is unevenly distributed.
While international inflation is under control, "exceptions include a few countries in Africa, which have experienced a sharp increase in inflation owing to food shortages, currency depreciation and/or stronger pass-through of higher oil prices to producers and consumers."
There is much that can be done. Inefficient state monopolies can be deregulated allowing new businesses to be created. Legal systems can ensure equality before the law, rather than entrenching rights for a small autocracy. Systems for reducing legal and business complexity can be reduced.
None of this is new. The mixed messages sent by African governments regarding their policies on open markets and socialist interventions may sound like populism, but it allows the current incumbents to maintain their control.
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