The African Business Review May-Jun 2014 | Page 18

Table 1. Africa growth of demand for exports and imports of goods and non factor services.
Country

EGS

IGS

IGS

2000-2006
(Average)%

Nigeria
South Africa
Kenya
Egypt
Ghana

EGS

2007-2008
(Average)%

2000-2006
(Average)%

2007-2008
(Average)%

5.2
4.0
6.0
12.1
3.5

-6.3
10.3
7.6
23.3
1.0

7.8
9.0
7.9
7.6
5.4

7.7
11.0
4.9
28.5
10.2

Legend: EGS = Exports of Goods and Non-Factor Services. IGS = Imports of Goods and Non-Factor Services. Source: IMF Quarterly Reports, 2009.

Table 2. Africa real GDP growth rates (frequency distribution).
1990-’99
Negative

2000-’05

2006

2007-2008

5

4

2

3

0-3%

24

13

11

10

Above 5%

7

14

32

25

53

53

Above 3 to 5%
Not available
Total

15
2

53

21
1

7
1

14
1

53

Source: IMF Quarterly Report, 2009.

global economic growth. Given the inter-linkages in the global
economy, policy makers also foresee the global slowdown will
invariably reduce the demand for African exports. This has already
been reflected in the demand for and prices of commodities in
African countries. For South Africa and Egypt, there was an
appreciable increase in