VOA标准英语2013--Africa Sees Strong Economic Growth

 

Africa Sees Strong Economic Growth

The World Bank says while the global economic recovery remains¹ slow, sub-Saharan African countries continue to grow at a strong pace. The bank has released its latest economic forecast for the region.

Four years after the start of the economic crisis, the World Bank describes the global recovery as “tepid²,” especially in the euro zone. Sub-Saharan Africa, on the other hand, has some of the fastest growing economies in the world, thanks to domestic demand and commodity prices that remain high. That’s according to the latest edition of the World Bank report called Africa’s Pulse.

“The report finds that Africa has been growing at a sustained, robust³ pace in 2012 and the region grew by 4.7 percent, which is double the rate of growth of the global economy. And this growth is impressive because it is in spite of the tepid and weak recovery that the global economy was experiencing in 2012,” said Punam Chuhan-Pole, lead economist⁴ for the Africa region, who is the co-author.

She said that if you exclude South Africa, which was hit by the recession, the sub-Saharan economy actually grew by 5.8 percent. Some individual countries had an even higher growth rate.

Several countries, such as Ethiopia, Rwanda, Ghana have managed to grow at 7 percent or more in each of the past three years. That means 2010, ’11 and ’12. And several other countries have also been growing at a strong pace, for example, Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Despite the slow global recovery, Foreign Direct Investment, or FDI, actually increased in sub-Saharan Africa by 5.5 percent to $37.7 billion in 2012. In fact, it continued to grow in Africa while falling elsewhere in the developing world.

Chuhan-Pole also said domestic spending rose, as did government spending in infrastructure⁵.

“So with government capital spending increasing to meet some of the large gaps in power and transportation, energy, Africa’s investment has been rising. Also, private consumption has been supported by declining inflation as well as lower interest rates and also easier access to credit. In addition, agricultural income in several countries increased. So all of this has helped to keep private consumption rising,” she said.

The World Bank forecast said that sub-Saharan Africa’s economic growth is expected to average over 5 percent between 2013 and 2015. However, there are risks, such as the weak global recovery.

Chuhan-Pole also said growth has been good for poverty reduction, just not good enough.

“What to we mean by that? If you look the period since 1996, per capita GDP has improved at a fairly brisk pace of 2.4 percent per annum. However, there’s variation across countries. We find that resource rich countries grew at over twice the rate as resource poor countries,” she said.

The World Bank’s outgoing Chief Economist for Africa, Shanta Devarajan, says harnessing economic growth to accelerate poverty reduction is the biggest issue facing policymakers. That’s especially true, he says, with more countries discovering they’re rich in resources. Almost 50 percent of the region’s population lives on $1.25 a day.

“What we have to realize is that resource income or resource revenues are not necessarily the fastest way to reduce poverty for the very simple reason that growth in resource rich countries occurs in the extractive sector⁶, but the poor earn their income from agriculture. Seventy percent of the poor are actually working in agriculture,” he said.

He said there are several ways to ensure resource wealth benefits the population and not just the oil, gas or mineral companies. First, he says, contracts must be as transparent⁷ as possible, so countries get their fair share. The next step is to spend that money wisely, for example, on infrastructure, like electricity, along with health and education. He says safety nets and cash transfers should be available to shield the population from poverty and global economic shocks.

Devarajan said that agriculture is another good place to invest.

‘There’s an estimate that worldwide, something like, one percent growth in agriculture is four times as powerful in reducing poverty as non-agricultural growth.”

He said Africa has the potential to be – what he calls – the workbench of the world, as well as the source of savings⁸, investment and growth. Much of that has to do with the continent’s demographics, which are bucking⁹ the world trend.

“Africa is going to be the youngest continent in the world. We have a youth bulge¹⁰ and the number of 15 to 65 year olds is going to be the highest in Africa in about 20 years. And that means that we have an opportunity because the number of working people relative to the number of dependents, if you like, very young and very old, is going to be increasing in Africa, whereas in the rest of the world, frankly¹¹, it’s going to be decreasing,” he said.

The World Bank’s Africa’s Pulse report also said good progress has been made on a few of the Millennium¹² Development Goals. But the progress across the region has been uneven¹³ and, overall, the region lags in achieving development goals. 

1 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

2 tepid   

adj.微温的，温热的，不太热心的

参考例句：

• She bent her mouth to the tap and drank the tepid water.她把嘴伸到水龙头底下去喝那微温的水。
• Her feet firmly planted on the tepid rough brick of the floor.她一双脚稳固地立在微温而粗糙的砖地上。

3 robust   

adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的

参考例句：

• She is too tall and robust.她个子太高，身体太壮。
• China wants to keep growth robust to reduce poverty and avoid job losses,AP commented.美联社评论道，中国希望保持经济强势增长，以减少贫困和失业状况。

4 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

5 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

6 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

7 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

8 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

9 bucking   

v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的现在分词 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃

参考例句：

• a bucking bronco in the rodeo 牛仔竞技表演中一匹弓背跳跃的野马
• That means we'll be bucking grain bags, bustin's gut. 那就是说咱们要背这一袋袋的谷子，得把五脏都累坏。 来自辞典例句

10 bulge   

n.突出，膨胀，激增；vt.突出，膨胀

参考例句：

• The apple made a bulge in his pocket.苹果把他口袋塞得鼓了起来。
• What's that awkward bulge in your pocket?你口袋里那块鼓鼓囊囊的东西是什么？

11 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

12 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。

13 uneven   

adj.不平坦的，不规则的，不均匀的

参考例句：

• The sidewalk is very uneven—be careful where you walk.这人行道凹凸不平—走路时请小心。
• The country was noted for its uneven distribution of land resources.这个国家以土地资源分布不均匀出名。