Africa is now one of the world’s fastest-growing regions
There is still barely an investor conference on Africa which goes by without someone making negative reference to The Economist’s famous article from more than a decade ago which dubbed it the “Hopeless Continent”.
The article caused great offence to many and while the numerous and horrific civil wars of the time could alone have appeared to justify it, Africa was in fact heading into the greatest decade of growth since most of its countries became independent.
“A more hopeful continent” is the subtitle to an article in The Economist this week, which points out that six of the world’s 10 fastest growing economies over the past decade were in Africa and that the future looks even brighter.
“MUCH has been written about the rise of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and the shift in economic power eastward as Asia outruns the rest of the world. But the surprising success story of the past decade lies elsewhere. An analysis by The Economist finds that over the ten years to 2010, no fewer than six of the world’s ten fastest-growing economies were in sub-Saharan Africa”
