简体中文
Africa has bright prospects of economic growth despite challenges, the Reserve Bank of South Africa said on Monday.
Africa has ceased to be the hopeless continent and is now a hopeful continent with improvement in the governance and trade, Daniel Mminele, deputy governor of the bank, said at the Africa Financial Summit in Johannesburg.
"Africa has been increasingly better managed, with the improvements in governance helping to promote an overall conducive environment to growth and development. There has been a steady rise in the contribution of domestic demand to gross domestic product (GDP)," said Mminele.
The deputy governor said the increase in middle class in Africa is fuelling demand for goods.
The African Development Bank (ADB) indicated that consumer spending by the middle class reached 680 billion U.S. dollars, about 25 percent of Africa's GDP in 2008. It is estimated that spending by the middle class will reach 2.2 trillion dollars by 2030. This will boost economic growth in Africa.
"The slowdown in the traditional export markets in the advanced countries as a result of the global financial crisis was countered by the rise of emerging countries in the world economy. This facilitated the diversification of export markets which served to sustain the demand for Africa's commodity exports," Mminele further stated.
"Telecommunications, banking, and the retail sector have been flourishing in many countries. This has contributed to the improvement in Africa's growth prospects, which in turn, has attracted the attention of foreign investors," Mminele said.
The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Africa increased from around 10 billion dollars per year in 2000 to more than 50 billion dollars in 2012, which coupled with political stability in most African countries, will assist in economic growth.
