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Macroeconomic Policy questions, Trade and Regional Market Integration: Presentation to the 2 nd Committee Dialogue. Ms. Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary Economic Commission for Africa. Regional Growth Rates Africa’s growth is expected to decline slightly to 3.6% in 2018.
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Macroeconomic Policy questions, Trade and Regional Market Integration:Presentation to the 2nd Committee Dialogue Ms. Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary Economic Commission for Africa
Regional Growth RatesAfrica’s growth is expected to decline slightly to 3.6% in 2018 SOURCE: UNDESA 2018 www.uneca.org
Sub-regional Growth RatesEast Africa is expected to achieve the highest growth SOURCE: UNDESA 2018 www.uneca.org
The savings – Investment gap is widening SOURCE: Calculations based on World Bank 2018 data www.uneca.org
Current account and fiscal balances have mainly been affected by external factors SOURCE: Calculations based on EIU 2018 data www.uneca.org
Total debt, external debt and debt service are on the rise again SOURCE: Based on IMF 2018 www.uneca.org
But the debt story is not the same for all African countries(2015 – 2017 Averages) 30% SOURCE: Based on IMF 2018 www.uneca.org
Tax-GDP has been declining: There is room to mobilise more domestic resources to address fiscal challenges, and to finance SDGs SOURCE: IMF data REO Data www.uneca.org
Opportunities in Trade and Regional Integration:Compared to other regions, Africa currently trades less with itself Intra and extra-group merchandise for selected regions (percentage, average 2012-2016) Source: Based on data from UNCTADStat (http://unctadstat.unctad.org), accessed on 27/08/2018 www.uneca.org
Opportunities in Trade and Regional Integration:Africa trades with itself more on manufactured goods than on primary commodities Intra-African Exports as a share of total exports: primary commodities and manufactured goods (percentage, 2012─2016) Source: Based on data from UNCTADStat www.uneca.org
Africa trades with itself more on Non-Extractive (mostly manufactured goods) than with the Rest of the World Structure of Intra-African exports compared to exports to the Rest of the World www.uneca.org
The importance of the AfCFTA for Africa’s growth, trade and regional integration • ECA has been and will continue to be strongly engaged in the AfCFTA processes. • It is estimated tariff elimination on goods under AfCFTA could increase the share of intra-African trade between 40% to over 50%. • The increase would be much larger if liberalization of trade in services and non-tariff barriers were to be tackled within Africa. www.uneca.org
The importance of the AfCFTA for Africa’s growth, trade and regional integration • In 2015, African countries spent about US$63 billion on food imports, largely from outside the continent. • ECA projects that under AfCFTA, intra-African trade in agricultural products will be between 20% and 30% higher in 2040. www.uneca.org
AfCFTA also offers a platform for continental cooperation and progress in other areas www.uneca.org
ECA is also leveraging AfCFTA momentum for Digital Identification on the continent www.uneca.org
Cooperation for Domestic Resource Mobilization • ECA will partner with OECD on the The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes where: countries commit to tackle tax-related IFFs related through Exchange of Information (EOI) and improved international tax cooperation. • Only 27 African countries are members of the Global Forum • Only 20 have signed the related Yaoundé Declaration www.uneca.org
THANK YOU! www.uneca.org