Conference Paper/Report

Global Economic Slowdown and the African Continent : Rethinking Export Led Growth

“The deterioration in economic performance has opened the export-led growth model to challenge suggesting that there is a need for a rethink and the need for a shift on the new development policy agenda that focuses on domestic demand-led growth. Domestic demand-led growth rests on four pillars: improved income distribution, good governance, financial stability and an adequate fairly priced supply of development finance. Thus, this paper seeks to examine the relevance of the export-led growth paradigm on African countries in the context
of current global economic outlook. The paper observes that the very fact that Africa’s recovery from a crisis it did not cause seems conditional on the recovery of those that caused it means that the current growth strategy is neither optimal nor appropriate. The paper proposes a new
development policy agenda in Africa that focuses on domestic demand-led growth.”