Analysis For Globalization and International Trade In Sub-Saharan Africa

April 18, 2012 - PRLog -- According to a recent report by the Worldbank.org ”Globalization” refers to the growing interdependence of countries resulting from the increased integration of trade, finance, people and ideas in one global marketplace. International trade and cross border investment flows are the main elements of this integration and this has been proven fruitful in man international markets. The most telling of these is the significant boost of economic growth globalization has afforded to East Asian communities such as Hong Kong (China), the Republic of Korea, and Singapore.

Yet despite this boom in the economic status of developing countries in the east and Latin America, Africa has been slow to integrate with the world economy and suffering through a continuous decline in economic power since the 1960’s. Those countries that are unable to adapt will eventually be forced out of business because of the benefits of unrestricted foreign trade.  In 1996 a report from the WTO World Trade Organization revealed that a majority of the countries on the African continent had less than 15% of their Gross Domestic Product GDP  (which is one of the primary indicators of the health of a country’s economy representative of all its products and services within a given period) come from International trade in fact sub –Saharan Africa’s GDP average growth rate of 2.7 percent was higher than its 2.1 percent export.

“Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa rebounded sharply in 2010, supported by both the global recovery and developments on the domestic front: output is estimated to have expanded by 4.7 percent in 2010—up from the 1.7 percent in 2009—just
shy of its 5 percent pre-crisis (2000-2008) average growth. Slower growth in the region’s largest economy, South Africa (2.8 percent), dragged down overall regional growth in 2010. Excluding South Africa, GDP growth in Sub-Saharan Africa for
2010 is estimated at 5.8 percent, up from 3.8 percent in 2009, and above its pre-crisis average growth of 5.6 percent. Continuation of the global recovery and strengthening domestic demand—particularly in South Africa—are expected to boost Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic performance in 2011 and in 2012 with a GDP growth projected at 5.3 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively.”  [WTO April 2012 Report.]

Excluding South Africa, growth reached 5.9 percent in 2011 expected to settle at a 6.1 percent in 2012, placing Sub-Saharan Africa among the fastest growing developing regions.
This reflects well on its trade to purchasing parity and illustrates a definite need for integration with the world economy across countries.
Although many countries appear to be less integrated because a larger share of their input consists of services giving the impression that a large portion of their GDP is by nature non trade-able this could be rectified by focused structuring/

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