CHAPTER 1. The Services Sector in Africa: Emerging Trends
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During this period, the services sector in Africa grew at a rate of 4.6 per cent, compared to 5.4 per cent in the developing world. The wholesale trade, retail trade, restaurants and hotels category grew at 5.0 per cent, compared to 5.8 per cent for the transport, storage and communications category and 4.0 per cent for other activities. Of the 10 countries (Burundi, Chad, the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda and Togo) where the services sector grew fastest in real terms during this period, at an annual average rate of more than 8 per cent, only Ethiopia and Rwanda were services exports-dependent. In the services exports-dependent economies of Cabo Verde, the Comoros, Mauritius, Sao Tome and Principe and Seychelles, services growth was below the African average of 4.6 per cent, reflecting a potential slowing down of the services sector in these countries. Furthermore, in the 53 African countries considered in this analysis, there was an estimated inverse correlation between the share of services in GDP during the same period and real growth in the services sector (a negative correlation coefficient of -0.27), which suggests that growth was fastest in countries that were among the least services-oriented and that some countries made significant progress in developing their services sector potential, albeit from a low base, for example Burundi and Equatorial Guinea. Among the 10 fastest growing economies by services sector, four countries are major fuel exporters (Chad, the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria). This may indicate a potential nexus between fuel exports revenues and services, with booming oil revenues supporting an increase in demand for services in some African economies. Averaging the real growth rate in services across categories of exports specializations shows that the real growth in services during the periods 2001–2004 and 2009–2012 was highest among fuel exporters (8.6 and 7.8 per cent, respectively) and lowest among food and agriculture exporters. Similarly, during the period 2009–2012, the manufacturing sector in all major fuel-exporting countries grew at a rate of 9.3 per cent on average, compared to 5.2 per cent for manufactured goods-exporting countries. As shown in table 3, at the country level, during the period 2009–2012, the services sector grew at a double digit rate in Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia and Nigeria. The sector contracted only in Madagascar, a services exportsdependent country that experienced a major retrenchment in public investment, official development assistance receipts and tourism, due to significant political turmoil during the period 2009–2011 (Ploch and Cook, 2012).