Recent franc zone growth only recovers past peaks, not net progress

Evidence

An analysis of the long-term statistics thus shows that, while the Ivory Coast has achieved noteworthy results in recent years, its real GDP per capita – or ‘average income’, for simplicity’s sake – in 2016 was more than a third lower than that recorded at the end of the 1970s. The same is true of Senegal, which has also achieved good results in recent years: its current average income is equal to that of 1960. These two states, therefore, are not ‘catching up’ with the other so-called emerging countries, but rather they are slowly recovering their previous levels of economic activity. More generally, ten states of the franc zone recorded their highest levels of average income before the 2000s. In Gabon, for example, the highest average income was recorded in 1976: just under $20,000. Forty years later, it has shrunk by half. — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 282

Categorization

• SEED: A strong angle: recent ‘success stories’ like Ivory Coast and Senegal are merely clawing back lost ground, not emerging — the catch-up narrative inverts.
• XREF: connects to: Franc zone growth is uneven and often strongly negative; Franc zone growth falls below the sub-Saharan average.; Franc zone economies have stagnated since independence, with most growing under 1 percent yearly — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 281 (+3 more)

Related

• Franc zone growth is uneven and often strongly negative (similarity 0.93)
• Franc zone economies have stagnated since independence, with most growing under 1 percent yearly (similarity 0.90)
• Franc zone growth falls below the sub-Saharan average. (similarity 0.86)
• Franc zone growth mostly reflects multinational activity, not local productive capacity (similarity 0.85)
• Seventy years in, franc zone states still export unprocessed raw materials to Europe (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Franc zone growth mostly reflects multinational activity, not local productive capacity #corroborates (0.60) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 315
• Four structural handicaps explain the franc zone’s poor socioeconomic performance #expands (0.50) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 293