Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile: The Eurozone crisis and its impact on
Africa's economy
Presentation by Mr Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile, Governor of the Bank of Uganda, at the
COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) Policy Organisation Meeting,
Kampala, 20 November 2012.
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1. Introduction
The Eurozone crisis is part of a much broader economic and financial crisis that has afflicted
the global economy since 2008. The global crisis is manifested primarily in slow economic
growth and the fragility of financial systems. Global economic growth has fallen by about two
percentage points in the five years since the crisis began in 2008 compared to the preceding
five years (table 1). The need to reduce very high levels of debt in both the public and private
sectors has impeded economy recovery in the advanced economies.
Table 1
Real output growth in the world and growth in world trade (percent) 2004-2013
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
proj proj
World 4.9 4.6 5.3 5.4 2.8 -0.7 5.1 3.8 3.3 3.6
Advanced Economies 3.1 2.7 3.1 2.8 0.1 -3.7 3.0 1.6 1.3 1.5
ow Euro Area 2.2 1.7 3.2 3.0 0.4 -1.8 2.0 1.4 -0.4 0.2
Emerging and Developing Economies 7.5 7.3 8.2 8.9 6.0 2.8 7.4 6.2 5.3 5.6
Sub-Saharan Africa 7.1 6.2 6.4 7.1 5.6 2.8 5.3 5.1 5.0 5.7
Uganda 6.5 6.3 10.8 8.4 8.7 7.3 5.9 6.7 3.4 5.0
World Trade 11.2 8.0 9.1 7.7 3.0 -10.7 12.6 5.8 3.2 4.5
2012 and 2013 are projections
Uganda data pertains to the fiscal year
Sources: IMF World Economic Outlook, except for Uganda where it is the Uganda Bureau of Statistics
Although all regions of the world have suffered a slowdown in economic growth as a result of
the economic and financial crisis, the Eurozone is one of the regions hardest hit; its economy
has gone back into recession this year, its banking system is very fragile and countries on
the periphery of the Eurozone have unsustainable levels of public debt. The slower economic
growth has also affected world trade. In the five years prior to the start of the economic crisis,
world trade volumes expanded at an average of 8 percent per annum, but this growth fell to
only 3 percent per annum in the last five years. The slowdown in the growth of world trade is
one of the main channels through which the economic problems of advanced economies are
transmitted to developing economies.
The short term prognosis for the global economy is not propitious. The October 2012 edition
of the World Economic Outlook, published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
forecasts only a very modest recovery in global economic growth in 2013, to 3.6 percent
compared to 3.3 percent in 2012. The IMF warns that the outlook is very uncertain and that
the risks for a serious global slowdown are alarmingly high. The continued difficulties facing
the advanced economies are not especially surprising, given that the economic crisis had its
genesis in a systemic financial crisis. Historically, major financial crises have had large and
long lasting negative effects on economic growth.
The medium to long term prospects for the global economy are also very uncertain. A report
released last week by the Conference Board, one of the leading economic forecasters in the
United States, forecasts that economic growth in both advanced and developing economies
will be weak through to the middle of the 2020s. The Conference Board forecasts global
growth of only 3 percent per annum during 2013-2018 and then only 2.5 percent per annum
during 2019-2025.
2. What are the implications of the global economic crisis for African
economies?
The health of the global economy matters profoundly for African economies, especially
because of its impact on their balance of payments. The weaknesses in the global economy
and especially the slowdown in the growth of world trade have constrained Africa's export
growth while inflows of donor grants have stagnated and private capital flows have become
more volatile. The current account balances of sub-Saharan African (SSA) economies have
worsened markedly since the onset of the global crisis, from an average surplus of
0.7 percent of GDP during 2004-08 to a projected average deficit of 3.3 percent of GDP
during 2012-13.1 The deterioration of the current account affects both oil exporters and oil
importers alike. The IMF forecasts a further rise in the average current account deficit of SSA
economies to 3.9 percent of GDP by 2017.
Slower growth of exports and larger current account deficits will be detrimental to the
development of SSA economies for two reasons. First, exports are an engine of economic
growth and economic transformation. Fast growing developing economies almost always
have successful export sectors. Secondly, larger current account deficits must be financed
with capital account surpluses. Given that official finance (such as concessional loans from
international financial institutions) is projected to be flat over the medium term, larger capital
account surpluses will only be possible if there are substantial increases in net private capital
flows, increases which are at best uncertain because of the difficulties facing the advanced
economies from where most of these flows originate. Moreover, even if larger net inflows of
private capital can be attracted to SSA countries to finance current account deficits, private
capital flows are likely to be volatile because of the fragility and turbulence on global financial
markets, which itself will be a source of instability for the macroeconomy.
3. The policy implications for African economies
To thrive in a much more difficult global economic environment, SSA economies will have to
prioritise measures to promote stronger export growth and to diversify their export markets
away from the traditional markets in advanced economies which face a prolonged period of
slow growth. I want to highlight three sets of strategic policy reforms which I believe can
contribute to these objectives across a broad range of SSA economies, if not necessarily in
all of them. These reforms pertain to the real exchange rate, regional trade and agricultural
modernisation.
The real exchange rate
Many empirical studies have established a robust relationship between economic growth and
export growth in developing countries and their real exchange rates. Overvalued and volatile
real exchange rates are very damaging for export industries and thus for private investment
in these industries. Hence macroeconomic policy in Africa should aim to achieve stable real
exchange rates which are, at the very least, not overvalued, and preferably are undervalued,
to shift incentives in favour of private investment in traded goods industries.
Sustaining more depreciated real exchange rates over the long term will only be possible if
domestic absorption falls relative to GDP (so that trade deficits are reduced). This requires
increased domestic savings rates. Because private savings rates are very difficult to
influence in the short term through public policy, the burden of raising domestic savings rates
will initially fall on the public sector. Public savings must rise which means that public
consumption, and especially spending on public administration, which is not usually very
productive, must be curtailed.
Intra-regional trade
To achieve sustained export growth over the long term, African exporters will have to
diversify away from the slow growing traditional export markets in advanced economies.
Regional trade offers promising prospects for diversification. Although Africa's intra-regional
exports have expanded more than four-fold since the turn of the century, they still comprise
only 9.6 percent of the continent's total exports, which is much lower than the corresponding
share in other developing regions such as Latin America; hence there should be
considerable scope for expanding intra-regional trade over the long term.
Regional economic integration is a goal of many countries in Africa, including those in East
Africa which have established the East African Community (EAC) and a broader group of
countries which are members of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa
(COMESA). The EAC has implemented a customs union, removing tariffs on intra-EAC trade
and imposing a common external tariff. However, non tariff barriers (NTBs) to intra-regional
trade remain pervasive in the region, some of which have been retained for protectionist
reasons, despite the fact that the removal of all NTBs that are applied in a manner which
restricts trade is an objective of the EAC Customs Union Protocol. NTBs include restrictions
pertaining to the "rules of origin" of imports, sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures and
technical barriers to trade involving the application of product standards and regulations in a
discretionary manner. A forthcoming World Bank report, which examines how to harness the
potential of regional trade and integration, found that Uganda and Kenya impose significantly
more NTBs on their imports than many other SSA countries.2 NTBs are a particularly serious
obstacle to the expansion of food exports within Africa, with the consequence that
agricultural development is stymied and the continent is becoming ever more dependent on
food imports from outside Africa. Hence the removal of NTBs should be a priority for African
governments.
Agricultural development and food trade
Africa's trade balance in agricultural products has deteriorated alarmingly over the last three
decades. In the 1980s, Africa had a small trade surplus with the rest of the world in
agricultural products, but it now has a trade deficit of approximately $22 billion. The main
reason why Africa is now incurring trade deficits in agricultural products is that the growth of
domestic food production has been weak, at about 2.7 percent per annum over the last three
decades, and has failed to keep pace with the increase in demand for food on the continent.
Africa has the potential to expand agricultural production and close its trade deficit in
agricultural products, but this will require substantial investments to raise productivity and to
commercialise agriculture among the smallholder farmers. Smallholders both dominate food
production on the continent and generate much higher yields per acre than larger farms, an
advantage which will become increasingly important as land availability becomes a more
binding constraint to output growth in Africa. As a result, it is not conceivable to envisage that
African agriculture can be modernized and production increased by ignoring the continent's
smallholder farmers and focusing instead on large farms. The priority of agricultural policy
should be to support smallholder farmers to adopt good agricultural practices and to sell
more of their output on the market, which then enable them to begin using more purchased
farm inputs and improved farm technologies. Agricultural policy should focus on the provision
of public goods and services to smallholders, in particular the provision of efficient
agricultural extension services and improving the network of rural feeder roads to allow
smallholders to access markets. Agricultural and rural development will also require public
investment in rural infrastructure, especially rural electrification, schools and health centres.
Because of the natural barriers to international food trade (transport costs are high), many
African food producers are potentially competitive on the regional market even if they cannot
compete on international markets. Consequently, expanding opportunities for intra-regional
trade cam make an important contribution to the commercialisation of food production in
Africa. Although some individual African countries are likely to remain net food importers,
some of the neighbours could supply their import needs competitively if domestic policies
support agricultural modernisation and if the NTBs to intra-regional trade which I have
already mentioned are removed.
4. Conclusions
The deleterious effects of the global economic and financial crisis are likely to remain a
feature of the world economy for many years to come. Developing countries in Africa and
other regions of the world will have to adjust to a much less benign global economic
environment than was the case in the years leading up to the crisis. The weaknesses in the
global economy will make it much harder to sustain strong export growth and to mobilise
foreign savings to fund large trade deficits. To adjust to this more difficult external
environment, African economies will have to live with smaller trade deficits, which implies
constraining the growth of consumption and prioritising policies which can support
sustainable export growth. Stable and undervalued real exchange rates, if sustained over the
long term, can help to promote investment in export industries. Opportunities to expand
intraregional trade will only be realised if the ubiquitous non tariff barriers are removed. Finally,
prioritising the modernisation of smallholder agriculture can support exports and reduce
Africa's large trade deficit in agricultural products.