Abstract
The economic crisis facing much of sub-saharan Africa manifests itself in a variety of ways. Per capita food production is declining. Per capita Gross National Product (GNP) has dropped in a number of countries. Shortages of spare parts and inputs have forced factories to produce well below capacity or even remain idle. Physical assets such as roads or communications facilities have deteriorated badly for lack of maintenance. Development projects have been abandoned or cut back by governments short of revenues. Many governments have also found themselves unable to service their foreign debts. These problems have depressed living standards and threatened future growth.
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Notes
Net development assistance is a significant source of foreign exchange for a number of African countries. It averages nearly a third of gross domestic investment in low-income countries and nearly a quarter of such investment in the middle-income oil importers. See IBRD, Toward Sustained Developnment in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Joint Program of Action (Washington, D.C., 1984) table 18, p. 74.
For background on the African Debt problem, see Kathie Krumm, The External Debt of Sub-Saharan Africa, IBRD Staff working paper no. 741 (Washington, D.C., 1985),
and Carol Lancaster and John Williamson, African Debt and Financing ( Washington, D.C.: Institute for International Economics, 1986 ).
Kenneth Kaunda, ‘Speech to Official Opening of the Third National Convention’ (Republic of Zambia, Government Printer: Lusaka, 1984 ) p. 5.
An unpublished report by a consultant to the US Agency for International Development estimated that in Sierra Leone (where rice prices are low and the currency is seriously overvalued), one-third of the annual rice production was smuggled out to Liberia where it could be sold for dollars: see Theodora Wood-Stervinou, ‘Macro-economic Overview — Sierra Leone’ (AID, January 1984) (xerox).
US Agency for International Development, Approaches to the Policy dialogue, AID Policy Paper (Washington, DC, 1982 ) p. 18.
See Tony Addison and Lionel Demery, ‘The Distributive Impact of Economic Stabilization’, Overseas Development Institute working paper 15 London, 1985.
Republic of Kenya, Review of Statutory Boards (Government Printer: Nairobi, May 1979) p. 3 (also known as the Ndegwa Report).
Economic Commission for Africa, ECA and Africa’s Economic Development 1983–2008 (Addis Ababa, 1983) p. 15.
Africa Bureau, Memo to the Assistant Administrator on Policy Reform in Africa, AID (Washington, D.C., May 1984) (xerox).
IBRD, Annual Report 1985 ( Washington, D.C., 1985 ) pp. 85–l98.
IBRD, Ghana Country Study Series ( Washington, D.C., 1984 ).
Onyema Ojochukwu, ‘Ghana: The Lost Revolution’, West Africa, 25 February 1985, p. 347.
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© 1987 Zaki Ergas
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Lancaster, C. (1987). Foreign Exchange and the Economic Crisis in Africa. In: Ergas, Z. (eds) The African State in Transition. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-18886-4_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-18886-4_10
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