IWS Documented News INTERNATIONAL

IWS Documented News Service
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies                 Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations          Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor                  Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016                      Director, IWS News Bureau
________________________________________________________________________

From the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)

Economic Report on Africa, 2004 [29 September 2004]
http://www.uneca.org/era2004/
(access by chapter)
or
http://www.uneca.org/era2004/full.pdf
[full-text, 232 pages]
(This is very slow to load - not recommended).

Press release at-
http://www.uneca.org/eca_resources/Press_Releases/2004_pressreleases/pressrelease2004.htm

Front Matter
Overview
chap1. Recent Economic Trends in Africa and Prospects for 2004
chap2. Trade Liberalization Panacea or Mirage?
chap3. Measuring Africa's Trade Competitiveness
chap4. Poor Energy Infrastructure Hobbles Export Diversification
chap5. Trade Facilitation to Integrate Africa into the World Economy
chap6. Fiscal Implications of Trade Liberalization

[excerpt]
The Economic Report on Africa 2004 is the fifth in an annual series that reviews the continent’s
economic performance and near-term prospects. Targeted to African and global
policymakers, the reports are meant to stimulate a process of discussion and change.
This year’s report builds on the work of the previous reports by systematic benchmarking
of economic performance. It finds that in 2003 Africa recovered from the economic
downturn of the previous year with real GDP growth of 3.8%, compared to 3.2% in
2002. This encouraging increase reflects Africa’s progress in a number of critical areas:
the continent has continued to exhibit good macroeconomic fundamentals; fiscal deficits
have been kept under control; inflation has largely stabilized; and the region’s current account
de.cit fell. However, faster overall growth is needed if Africa is to make progress
toward achieving the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty by 2015. Indeed,
it is sobering that in 2003 only five countries—Angola, Burkina Faso, Chad, Equatorial
Guinea and Mozambique—achieved the necessary 7% growth to make this possible.

Trade is one of the main drivers of growth and development; yet Africa’s trade performance
is weak. The region’s share in world merchandise exports fell from 6.3% in 1980 to
2.5% in 2000 in value terms. It recorded a meager 1.1% average annual growth over the
1980-2000 period, compared to 5.9% in Latin America and 7.1% in Asia. Further, while
about 70% of developing countries’ exports are manufactures, Africa has hardly benefited
from the boom in these exports. Overall on the continent, and particularly in sub-Saharan
Africa, progress on export diversification has been slow.

This year’s report looks at what needs to be done to help the continent more expeditiously
harness the benefits of globalization. The report identifies challenges that are both external
and internal.

_____________________________
This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.

****************************************
Stuart Basefsky                 *
Director, IWS News Bureau               *
Institute for Workplace Studies *
Cornell/ILR School                      *
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor            *
New York, NY 10016                      *
                                        *
Telephone: (607) 255-2703               *
Fax: (607) 255-9641                     *
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu                *
****************************************