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Economic Development in Africa Report 2015
A. INTRODUCTION In many African countries, the services sector constitutes the largest segment of the economy, and during the period 2000–2012, the sector contributed an increasing share to gross domestic product (GDP), trade and employment. The development of efficient and competitive services economies and trade, especially in infrastructure services such as telecommunications, transport, energy and finance, could significantly improve the economic outlook in Africa. This chapter outlines key stylized facts about the services sector in Africa, based on both national and international sources of data. These facts capture the importance of the services sector in African national economies in terms of their contribution to GDP, trade and employment, and highlight areas for boosting the potential of services in Africa. Box 1 summarizes selected conceptual issues concerning the definition, classification and treatment of services data in economic analysis.
B. STYLIZED FACTS ON THE SERVICES SECTOR IN AFRICA From the period 2001–2004 to the period 2009–2012, the share of services in African output rose from 45.8 to 49 per cent. The share of services in real output was highest among exporters of manufactured goods. Table 1 shows the distribution of total value added in Africa (in constant 2005 dollars) by sector.1 The share of services in Africa’s real output rose from 45.8 to 49.0 per cent from the period 2001–2004 to the period 2009–2012. This mirrored the trend in developing economies, where the share of services in real output rose from 51.9 to 52.8 per cent over the same period. In Africa, the share of services in real output was highest among exporters of manufactured goods (comprising Lesotho and Tunisia), at 61.7 per cent, followed by services exporters at 57.0 per cent, and lowest among fuel exporters, at 33.9 per cent. This may indicate that services are an important determinant of competitiveness in manufacturing exports. Within the services sector in Africa, during the period 2009–2012, the shares of subsectors were as follows: wholesale trade, retail trade, restaurants and hotels accounted for 14.5 per cent of output; transport, storage and communications accounted for 9.2 per cent of output; and other activities accounted for 25.2 per