Economic Crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa: The International Dimension
| Author | G.K. Helleiner |
| Date | 01 December 1986 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070208604100403 |
| Published date | 01 December 1986 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
G.K.
HELLEINER
Economic
crisis
in
sub-Saharan
Africa:
the
international
dimension
THE ORIGINS
OF
ECONOMIC
CRISIS
Sub-Saharan
Africa's
current
economic
problems
stem
from
a
complex
mix,
varying
from country
to
country,
of
basic
resource
constraints,
domestic
mismanagement,
and
severe
external
shocks.
Climate
and natural
resource
endowments
vary
greatly.
Some
countries
are
severely
constrained
by
a
fragile
and
de-
teriorating
environment,
and perpetually
dependent
for
short-
term prosperity upon
the
weather;
others
have
fertile
land,
rich
deposits
of
minerals,
and/or
abundant
potential
for
hydro-
electric
power.
All,
however,
are at
relatively
low
levels
of
eco-
nomic
development.
Even
before the much
publicized
disasters
of
the
198os,
sub-Saharan
Africa
lagged
behind
most
of
the
developing
world
in
levels
of
per-capita
income,
development
of
social
infrastructure,
availability
of
education
and
health,
and
rate
of
economic
growth. Twenty-nine
sub-Saharan
African
countries
are
'IDA-eligible,'
qualifying
by
their
poverty
for
the
soft
loans
of
the World Bank
group.
Twenty-two
are
categor-
ized
by
the
United
Nations
as
among
the
'least
developed.'
Many
of
the
countries
of
this
region
are
also
very
small,
and
all
are
experiencing
extremely
rapid
rates
of
population
growth.
Global economic
turbulence
brought
enormous
external
shocks
to
sub-Saharan
Africa
in
the
197os
and
198os.
With
some
international
assistance,
the
African
countries
managed,
by
and
large,
to
'ride
through'
the
oil
price
increases
and
global reces-
sion
in
the
1974-6
period;
between
1976
and
1979
their
overall
Professor
of
Economics,
University
of
Toronto.
He
has
recently
edited
The
IMF
and
Africa
(1986).
International
Journal
XLI
autumn
1986
ECONOMIC
CRISIS:
THE
INTERNATIONAL DIMENSION
749
economic
performance,
while
variable
among
countries,
was
quite
satisfactory
by
international
standards.
After 1979,
how-
ever,
when
even
greater
and
longer
lasting
blows
rained
upon
sub-Saharan
Africa
-
increased
oil
prices,
collapsed
commodity
prices,
higher
interest
rates,
reduced international
capital
flows,
and
successive
droughts,
not
to
speak
of
major
civil
disturbances
(some
financed
by
South
Africa)
-
many
nations
went
into
a
downward
spiral
from
which
they
have
yet
to
emerge.
Since
198o,
per-capita
income
has
dropped
by
about
30
per
cent
in
such
countries
as
Chad, Niger,
Tanzania,
and
Togo,
and
by
12
per
cent
overall.
'Low-income
Africa
is
poorer
today
than
in
196o.
Improvements
over
those
years
in
health,
education,
and
infrastructure
are
increasingly
at
risk.
For
the
first
time
since
World
War
II,
a
whole
region
has
suffered retrogression
over
a
generation."
Severe
external
blows
to
income
and
the
balance
of
pay-
ments
seem to have
interacted
perniciously
with
relatively
'soft'
economic
decision-making
systems
to
produce rapid
inflation,
grossly
overvalued currencies, declining
fiscal
revenues,
re-
duced
overall
savings,
rising
corruption
and
illegal
or
grey
eco-
nomic
activities,
and
ever declining confidence
in
the
state.
The
crisis
in
Africa
today
extends
far
beyond
the
drama
of
drought
and
famine.
The
real
crisis
relates
to
the
still
uncertain
capacity
of
sub-Saharan
African
governments
to
right
themselves
and
their
economies,
to
redress
the
enormous
losses
already
suf-
fered,
and
to
resume
orderly
progress.
An
'institutional
deser-
tification'
is
under
way
that
may
make
it
more
difficult to
restore
orderly
development
processes
now
than
it
was
to
initiate
them
at
independence.2
Sober
as
the
World Bank's
1986
report
is,
it
nevertheless
significantly
understates
the
degree
of
Africa's
prob-
lems.
The
most
immediate constraints
upon
improved
sub-
i
Financing
Adjustment
with
Growth
in
Sub-Saharan
Africa,
1986-9o
(Washington:
World
Bank
1986),
9.
2
Development
Co-operation,
Efforts
and
Policies
of
the
Members
of
the
Development
Assist-
ance
Committee
(Paris:
OECD
1984), 33.
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