African Development Indicators 2004

World Bank

Washington, DC

关键词: EXCHANGE RATES;    EXPORT PERFORMANCE;    CURRENT ACCOUNT BALANCES;    FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS;    HEAVILY INDEBTED POOR COUNTRIES;   

DOI  :  10.1596/0-8213-5720-4
RP-ID  :  28809

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This year's edition of the WorldBank publication, African Development Indicators (ADI) 2004,depicts a diverse picture of development in Africa, withseveral countries making remarkable progress and otherslagging seriously behind. ADI 2004 presents data for morethan 500 indicators of development for 53 countries.Thirteen Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries averaged morethan 5 percent growth for the period 1995-2002, but manyothers saw their economies contract, usually as a result ofsevere civil conflict and adverse weather conditions. Theregion's economic growth slowed in 2002 to 2.8 percent,slightly down from 2.9 percent in 2001. Net foreign directinvestment flows continued on a rising trend and reached$8.9 billion in 2002. These continued to be heavilyconcentrated in oil exporting countries and South Africa.The increase in official aid to the region fell far belowthe levels required to put a significant dent on poverty orachieve the MDGs. Debt relief is playing a larger role inAfrica's resource picture, as total debt service reliefreached $43 billion in fiscal year 2003, at a time when, asthe book notes, "pro-poor expenditures had begun toincrease in most of the countries". Gross enrollment inprimary schools recovered to 87 percent, up from 80 percentin 1980. The increase contributed to a drop in illiteracyrates from 47 percent in 1997 to 37 percent in 2002.Tracking the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the book reveals that almost30 million Africans are infected and eleven million childrenhave been orphaned. In 2001 alone, 2.2 million AIDS-relateddeaths were recorded on the continent. Bearing the diverseperformance in mind, the publication notes that Africaurgently needs rich nations to deliver on their promises ofmore generous aid and wider trade opportunities to reversethe exacting cruelty of disease and poverty on thecontinent. Civil wars, the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS, anemicaid, persistent low growth rates and weak commodity prices,threaten gains of the recent years in overall povertyalleviation and may jeopardize Africa's chances ofattaining some of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.