Growth for all?

The following article is a faithful record of results from a World Bank survey, but leaves out the warning that these large-sounding percentage growth figures are almost all on very small bases, and is certainly not instant wealth for all.

And percentage growth rates are usually just statisticians playing with pretty numbers.

They don’t, for example, indicate just how “real” that growth is, or how much it is in monetary terms. They certainly don’t indicate just how efficiently/inefficiently that growth will be employed.

“Mozambique is number ten on a World Bank list of the world’s 13 fastest-growing economies, with the report projecting an annual growth rate of around 7.3% per annum.

The list of thirteen economies likely to grow most between 2015 and 2017 is mainly composed of African and Asian countries.

All the countries on the World Bank’s economic outlook report currently record an economic growth of at least seven percent a year.

The acceleration in the exploitation of natural resources is the key to economic growth in most of the countries, the report says.

Mozambique, one of the fastest growing economies in sub-Saharan Africa, appears in the tenth place in terms of average gross domestic product (GDP) growth, which is currently reported at 7.3%. The World Bank projects 7.2% growth for the country this year with 7.3% next year and in 2017, putting it ahead of countries like Tanzania, Rwanda and China.

Topping the list is Ethiopia, with an expected economic growth of 9.5% per annum, followed by Turkmenistan and Congo with 8.6% and 8.5% respectively.”

Source: Television Malta (TVM) and The Mozambican Investor