Macroeconomic and Social Developments in Eastern Africa 2019

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Macroeconomic and Social Developments in Eastern Africa 2019 Macroeconomic and Social Developments in Eastern Africa 2019 Towards the Implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area in Eastern Africa Macroeconomic and Social Developments in Eastern Africa 2019 Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................... 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................................................... 5 1. MACROECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS ...................................................... 9 1.1. RESUMED GROWTH MOMENTUM IN EASTERN AFRICA ............................................................. 9 1.2. DEBT VULNERABILITIES PERSIST DESPITE NARROWING FISCAL DEFICITS ............................ 16 1.3. MODERATED INFLATION AND EXCHANGE RATE PRESSURES .................................................. 24 1.4. CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICITS ARE CONSTRAINING GROWTH ................................................ 27 1.5. LEVERAGING EXTERNAL FINANCIAL FLOWS ........................................................................... 36 1.6. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT ............................................................................................................ 40 1.6.1. Improvements in Life Expectancy .................................................................................. 41 1.6.2. Building a Literate Workforce ........................................................................................ 43 1.6.3. The Costs of Gender-Based Violence ............................................................................. 44 1.6.4. Progress on The Sustainable Development Goals ........................................................... 45 2. SPECIAL THEMATIC STUDY: THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE AFRICAN CONTINENTAL FREE TRADE AREA IN EASTERN AFRICA ................................................................................... 49 PART I: DEMAND-SIDE PERSPECTIVES ON REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT ............................ 52 I.1. A DEMAND-DECOMPOSITION ANALYSIS OF REGIONAL GROWTH ............................................ 52 I.2. PATTERNS OF HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION ............................................................................... 54 I.3. TO WHAT EXTENT IS DOMESTIC DEMAND MET BY LOCAL PRODUCTION? .............................. 59 I.4. RECAPTURING DOMESTIC MARKETS ......................................................................................... 63 PART II: CREATING A CONTINENTAL MARKET........................................................................ 68 II.1. EMPIRICAL STUDIES OF THE IMPACT OF TRADE LIBERALISATION........................................... 68 II.1.1. How Does Trade Grow? Multilateral vs. Regional Processes ........................................... 68 II.1.2. Competing Methodologies: Econometric vs. Computable General Equilibrium Simulations ...................................................................................................................................................... 69 II.1.3. How Much is the East African Community Currently Under-trading? ............................. 72 II.2. UNLEASHING THE FULL POTENTIAL OF REGIONAL TRADE AND INDUSTRIALIZATION ............ 74 II.3. EXPANDING INTRA-AFRICAN AGRICULTURAL TRADE ............................................................ 81 II.3.1. The State of Agricultural Trade in Eastern Africa ............................................................. 82 II.3.2. The Scope for Expanding Agro-Industrial Trade Under the AfCFTA .............................. 84 II.4. THE BLUE ECONOMY AND THE AFCFTA ................................................................................. 86 II.4.1. The Northern and Central Corridors: Backbones of Transport of Intraregional Trade ..... 86 II.4.2. Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika: The Two Hidden Gems of the Northern and Central Corridors ...................................................................................................................................... 89 II.5. TAPPING THE POTENTIAL OF INTRA-AFRICAN SERVICES TRADE ............................................ 93 II.5.1. The Tourism Case .............................................................................................................. 95 II.6. A CALL FOR FREE MOVEMENT OF PERSONS ............................................................................ 99 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................... 101 1 Draft version. Comments are welcomed. Macroeconomic and Social Developments in Eastern Africa 2019 List of Boxes, Figures and Tables Boxes BOX 1: THE ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS OF THE RAPID RAPPROCHEMENT BETWEEN ERITREA AND ETHIOPIA .................................................................................................................................... 11 BOX 2: HOW VULNERABLE ARE THE EASTERN AFRICAN COUNTRIES? ............................................ 13 BOX 3: DO BUDGET ALLOCATIONS ALIGN WITH DEVELOPMENT PRIORITIES? .............................. 17 BOX 4: MODELLING THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE CHINA BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE ON EAST AFRICA ...................................................................................................................................... 23 BOX 5: THE EAST AFRICAN MONETARY UNION: READY OR NOT? ..................................................... 26 BOX 6: FINANCING GROWTH IN THE CONTEXT OF BALANCE OF PAYMENT CONSTRAINT ......... 28 BOX 7: THE IMPACT OF BREXIT ON THE AFRICAN CONTINENT – SOME NEW OPPORTUNITIES MAY OPEN UP FOR EASTERN AFRICA .......................................................................................... 34 BOX 8: ENHANCING FINANCIAL INCLUSION VIA MOBILE MONEY .................................................... 37 BOX 9: WISHFUL THINKING? – THE DEMOGRAPHIC DIVIDEND IN EASTERN AFRICA ................... 47 BOX 10: IDENTIFYING STRATEGIC SECTORS VIA PRODUCT SPACE ................................................... 66 BOX 11: HOW EAST AFRICA COULD USE THE AFCFTA TO TACKLE GENDER INEQUALITY ......... 79 Figures FIGURE 1: REAL GDP GROWTH IN EASTERN AFRICA, AFRICA AND THE WORLD ........................... 10 FIGURE 2: ECONOMIC VULNERABILITY INDEX OF EASTERN AFRICAN COUNTRIES, 2018 ........... 13 FIGURE 3: SHARE OF VALUE ADDED OF THE MANUFACTURING AND SERVICES SECTORS BETWEEN 2006 AND 2016 ............................................................................................................ 14 FIGURE 4: EMPLOYMENT AND GDP GROWTH IN SELECTED AFRICAN COUNTRIES ...................... 15 FIGURE 5: FISCAL BALANCE ......................................................................................................................... 16 FIGURE 6: KENYA’S SECTORAL ALLOCATIONS ....................................................................................... 17 FIGURE 7: RWANDA’S SECTORAL ALLOCATIONS ................................................................................... 19 FIGURE 8: UGANDA’S SECTORAL ALLOCATIONS .................................................................................... 20 FIGURE 9: LOANS TO THE REGION FROM CHINA..................................................................................... 22 FIGURE 10: NOMINAL EXCHANGE RATE, LOCAL CURRENCY VERSUS US DOLLAR ...................... 25 FIGURE 11: CURRENT ACCOUNT BALANCE .............................................................................................. 27 FIGURE 12: OFFICIAL FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES ......................................................................... 27 FIGURE 13: TRADE BALANCE BETWEEN THE EAC AND KEY TRADING PARTNERS ....................... 31 FIGURE 14: COMPOSITION OF EASTERN AFRICA’S MANUFACTURED EXPORTS TO AFRICA ....... 32 FIGURE 15: AGOA SHARE OF EXPORTS TO USA VS SHARE OF EXPORTS TO USA, 2015-2017 AVERAGE ....................................................................................................................................... 33 FIGURE 16: SHARE OF ADULTS WITH A MOBILE MONEY ACCOUNT, 2014 AND 2017 ..................... 37 FIGURE 17: FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT FLOW TO EASTERN AFRICA, 2008-2017 ...................... 39 FIGURE 18: IMPROVEMENTS IN LIFE EXPECTANCY, 2007-2017 ............................................................ 42 FIGURE 19: LIFE EXPECTANCY AT BIRTH (PLOTTED ACCORDING TO HDR RANK), 2017 .............. 42 FIGURE 20: PERCENTAGE OF WOMEN WHO CANNOT READ AT ALL.................................................. 43 FIGURE 21: MALE AND FEMALE WITH NO EDUCATION ......................................................................... 44 FIGURE 22: SDG DASHBOARD FOR EASTERN AFRICA ............................................................................ 46 FIGURE 23: TOTAL FERTILITY BY REGION, 1950-2050 ............................................................................. 47 FIGURE 24: DEPENDENCY RATIO, 2015 AND 2050..................................................................................... 48 FIGURE 25: DEMAND SHARES, 2016 ............................................................................................................. 52 FIGURE 26: GROWTH DECOMPOSITION, 1990-2015 ................................................................................... 53 FIGURE 27: COMPOSITION OF ACTUAL INDIVIDUAL CONSUMPTION, 2011 ...................................... 55 FIGURE 28: PRICE LEVEL INDEX (WORLD = 100), 2011 ...........................................................................
Recommended publications
  • Breaking Down the Walls: the West's Challenge Operating in Euro-Asia" (2015)
    University of Central Florida STARS HIM 1990-2015 2015 Breaking Down the Walls: The West's Challenge Operating in Euro- Asia Ekaterina Marchenko University of Central Florida Part of the Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/honorstheses1990-2015 University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in HIM 1990-2015 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Recommended Citation Marchenko, Ekaterina, "Breaking Down the Walls: The West's Challenge Operating in Euro-Asia" (2015). HIM 1990-2015. 602. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/honorstheses1990-2015/602 BREAKING DOWN THE WALLS: THE WEST’S CHALLENGES OPERATING IN EURO-ASIA by EKATERINA V. MARCHENKO A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Honors in the Major Program in Business Administration in the College of Business Administration and in The Burnett Honors College at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Summer Term 2015 Thesis Chair: Dr. Dean Cleavenger ABSTRACT Russia today presents potentially lucrative business opportunities and markets for any company interested in expanding internationally. Together with the opportunities and potential profits, however, Russia also presents formidable challenges and risks to any Western or American company considering doing business there. The purposes of this thesis are: to explain how Russia’s unique and tortured history has impacted the business culture of modern Russia; to describe the primary business risks that any Western company entering Russia will face; and to offer recommendations to any Western company considering doing business there.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rise and Decline of Catching up Development an Experience of Russia and Latin America with Implications for Asian ‘Tigers’
    Victor Krasilshchikov The Rise and Decline of Catching up Development An Experience of Russia and Latin America with Implications for Asian ‘Tigers’ ENTELEQUIA REVISTA INTERDISCIPLINAR The Rise and Decline of Catching up Development An Experience of Russia and Latin America with Implications for Asian `Tigers' by Victor Krasilshchikov Second edition, July 2008 ISBN: Pending Biblioteca Nacional de España Reg. No.: Pending Published by Entelequia. Revista Interdisciplinar (grupo Eumed´net) available at http://www.eumed.net/entelequia/en.lib.php?a=b008 Copyright belongs to its own author, acording to Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 made up using OpenOffice.org THE RISE AND DECLINE OF CATCHING UP DEVELOPMENT (The Experience of Russia and Latin America with Implications for the Asian ‘Tigers’) 2nd edition By Victor Krasilshchikov About the Author: Victor Krasilshchikov (Krassilchtchikov) was born in Moscow on November 25, 1952. He graduated from the economic faculty of Moscow State University. He obtained the degrees of Ph.D. (1982) and Dr. of Sciences (2002) in economics. He works at the Centre for Development Studies, Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), Russian Academy of Sciences. He is convener of the working group “Transformations in the World System – Comparative Studies in Development” of European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI – www.eadi.org) and author of three books (in Russian) and many articles (in Russian, English, and Spanish). 2008 THE RISE AND DECLINE OF CATCHING UP DEVELOPMENT Entelequia.Revista Interdisciplinar Victor Krasilshchikov / 2 THE RISE AND DECLINE OF CATCHING UP DEVELOPMENT C O N T E N T S Abbreviations 5 Preface and Acknowledgements 7 PART 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Structural Change for Equality an Integrated Approach to Development
    2012 structural change for equality An Integrated Approach to Development Thirty-fourth San Salvador, session 27 - 31 August of eclac 2012 structural change for equality An Integrated Approach to Development Thirty-fourth San Salvador, session 27 - 31 August of eclac Alicia Bárcena Executive Secretary Antonio Prado Deputy Executive Secretary The preparation of this document was coordinated by Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of ECLAC, in collaboration with Antonio Prado, Deputy Executive Secretary, Mario Cimoli, Chief of the Division of Production, Productivity and Management, Juan Alberto Fuentes, Chief of the Economic Development Division, Martin Hopenhayn, Chief of the Social Development Division and Daniel Titelman, Chief of the Financing for Development Division. The drafting committee also comprised Wilson Perés and Gabriel Porcile, in collaboration with Martín Abeles, Verónica Amarante, Filipa Correia, Felipe Jiménez, Sandra Manuelito, Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid, Esteban Pérez-Caldentey and Romain Zivy. The following chiefs of substantive divisions, subregional headquarters and national offices of ECLAC participated in the preparation of the document: Hugo Altomonte, Hugo Beteta, Luis Beccaria, Inés Bustillo, Pascual Gerstenfeld, Dirk Jaspers_Faijer, Juan Pablo Jiménez, Jorge Mattar, Carlos Mussi, Sonia Montaño, Diane Quarless, Juan Carlos Ramírez, Osvaldo Rosales and Joseluis Samaniego. Contributions and comments regarding the various chapters were provided by the following ECLAC staff members: Olga Lucía Acosta, Jean Acquatella,
    [Show full text]
  • Aussie Mine 2016 the Next Act
    Aussie Mine 2016 The next act www.pwc.com.au/aussiemine2016 Foreword Welcome to the 10th edition of Aussie Mine: The next act. We’ve chosen this theme because, despite gruelling market conditions and industry-wide poor performance in 2016, confidence is on the rise. We believe an exciting ‘next act’ is about to begin for our mid-tier miners. Aussie Mine provides industry and financial analysis on the Australian mid-tier mining sector as represented by the Mid-Tier 50 (“MT50”, the 50 largest mining companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange with a market capitalisation of less than $5bn at 30 June 2016). 2 Aussie Mine 2016 Contents Plot summary 04 The three performances of the last 10 years 06 The cast: 2016 MT50 08 Gold steals the show 10 Movers and shakers 12 The next act 16 Deals analysis and outlook 18 Financial analysis 22 a. Income statement b. Cash flow statement c. Balance sheet Where are they now? 32 Key contributors & explanatory notes 36 Contacting PwC 39 Aussie Mine 2016 3 Plot summary The curtain comes up Movers and shakers The mining industry has been in decline over the last While the MT50 overall has shown a steadying level few years and this has continued with another weak of market performance in 2016, the actions and performance in 2016, with the MT50 recording an performances of 11 companies have stood out amongst aggregated net loss after tax of $1bn. the crowd. We put the spotlight on who these movers and shakers are, and how their main critic, their investors, have But as gold continues to develop a strong and dominant rewarded them.
    [Show full text]
  • Commodity Booms and Structural Transformation: the Role of Input Use and Land Inequality
    FUNDAÇÃO GETULIO VARGAS ESCOLA DE ECONOMIA DE SÃO PAULO ANDREI ARMINIO LASKIEVIC COMMODITY BOOMS AND STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION: THE ROLE OF INPUT USE AND LAND INEQUALITY São Paulo 2021 ANDREI ARMINIO LASKIEVIC COMMODITY BOOMS AND STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION: THE ROLE OF INPUT USE AND LAND INEQUALITY Dissertação apresentada à Escola de Econo- mia de São Paulo como pré-requisito à ob- tenção de título de mestre em Economia de Empresas. Orientador: Daniel Ferreira Pereira Gonçalves Da Mata São Paulo 2021 Laskievic, Andrei Arminio. Commodity booms and structural transformation : the role of input use and land inequality / Andrei Arminio Laskievic. - 2021. 91 f. Orientador: Daniel da Mata. Dissertação (mestrado CMEE) – Fundação Getulio Vargas, Escola de Economia de São Paulo. 1. Produtos agrícolas. 2. Solo - Uso. 3. Agricultura - Brasil. 4. Posse da terra. 5. Igualdade. I. Mata, Daniel da. II. Dissertação (mestrado CMEE) – Escola de Economia de São Paulo. III. Fundação Getulio Vargas. IV. Título. CDU 339.172(81) Ficha Catalográfica elaborada por: Isabele Oliveira dos Santos Garcia CRB SP-010191/O Biblioteca Karl A. Boedecker da Fundação Getulio Vargas - SP ANDREI ARMINIO LASKIEVIC COMMODITY BOOMS AND STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION: THE ROLE OF INPUT USE AND LAND INEQUALITY Dissertação apresentada à Escola de Econo- mia de São Paulo como pré-requisito à ob- tenção de título de mestre em Economia de Empresas. Data de aprovação: / / Banca examinadora: Prof. Dr. Daniel Ferreira Pereira Gonçalves Da Mata FGV-EESP (Orientador) Prof. Dr. Emanuel Augusto Rodrigues Orne- las FGV-EESP Prof. Dr. Rodrigo Reis Soares Insper Agradecimentos Ao meu orientador, Professor Daniel da Mata, por todas as contribuições, sugestões, e ensinametos ao longo da dissertação.
    [Show full text]
  • Financialization and the Extractive Industries
    Edinburgh Research Explorer Financialization and the extractive industries Citation for published version: Bowman, A 2018, 'Financialization and the extractive industries: The case of South African platinum mining', Competition and Change, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 388-412. https://doi.org/10.1177/1024529418785611 Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.1177/1024529418785611 Link: Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research Explorer Document Version: Peer reviewed version Published In: Competition and Change Publisher Rights Statement: The final version of this paper has been published in Competition and Change, 22/4, August/2018 by SAGE Publications Ltd, All rights reserved. © Andrew Bowman, 2018. It is available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1024529418785611 General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 07. Oct. 2021 Financialisation, instability and distributional conflict in the extractive industries: the case of South African platinum mining Andrew Bowman Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh Society, Work and Development Institute, University of the Witwatersrand Draft: not for citation or circulation without author’s permission 1: Introduction This paper examines the effects of financialisation on large-firm management strategy in the extractive industries, and the accompanying developmental implications.
    [Show full text]
  • A Sticky-Price View of Hoarding ∗
    A Sticky-Price View of Hoarding ∗ Christopher Hansman Harrison Hong Imperial College London Columbia University Aureo de Paula Vishal Singh University College London New York University July 17, 2019 Abstract Household hoarding of staple foods during periods of scarcity is conventionally por- trayed as driven by precaution. By paying high prices for inventories to hedge price uncertainty, households are thought to destabilize commodity markets. However, re- tail prices are sticky, responding with delay to supply shocks. Hoarding hence con- flates precaution with anticipatory stockpiling due to sticky prices. With U.S. scanner data covering a classic 2008 rice hoarding episode, we find that household inventories anticipated delayed retail-price adjustment. There would be significantly less hoard- ing absent sticky prices. Traditional policy measures invoked during commodity- market bubbles or shortages can be counterproductive under the sticky-price view. ∗This paper subsumes our earlier work on hoarding and commodity bubbles. We thank seminar partic- ipants at CICF 2019, INSEAD, Aalto, Peking University, Warwick University, Cambridge University, NBER Universities Conference on Commodities, HKUST, New York University, PUC-Rio and Yale University for helpful comments. We are also grateful to Quisha Peng, Pengfei Wang, Yuriy Gorodnichenko, Emi Naka- mura, Hassan Afrousi, Michael Woodford, William Goetzmann, Hank Bessembinder, Manuel Arellano, Orazio Attanasio, Richard Blundell, Marcelo Fernandes, Bo Honoré, Guy Laroque, Valerie Lechene and Elie Tamer for useful conversations. de Paula gratefully acknowledges financial support from the European Research Council through Starting Grant 338187 and the Economic and Social Research Council through the ESRC Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice grant RES-589-28-0001.
    [Show full text]
  • Developing Countries' Political Cycles and The
    Developing countries’ political cycles and the resource curse: Venezuela’s case Alejandro Márquez-Velázquez School of Business & Economics Discussion Paper Economics 2019/14 Developing countries’ political cycles and the resource curse: Venezuela’s casei August 2019 Alejandro Márquez-Velázqueza a Department of Economics and Institute for Latin American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany Institute for Latin American Studies, Rüdesheimer Str. 54/56, 14197 Berlin, Germany. Telephone: + 49 30 838 72644. Fax: +49 30 838 55464. Email: alejandro.marquez@fu- berlin.de. ORCiD: 0000-0003-3272-5834. Twitter: @ale_marquez. Alejandro Márquez-Velázquez is Research Associate at the Freie Universität Berlin. He holds a PhD in economics from the same university. His research has appeared in Development Southern Africa, Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung and Revista Venezolana de Análisis de Coyuntura. He has co-edited three books on economic development issues published by the United Nations. Developing countries’ political cycles and the resource curse: Venezuela’s case The resource curse literature’s main lesson is that developing and natural resource- rich countries should save most of their oil windfalls in foreign currency. Moreover, the political cycle literature’s recent contributions predict stronger cycles in these countries. This paper investigates how political cycles might explain low oil windfall savings. Using Venezuela’s case, the paper argues that power concentration during periods of oil price explosiveness leads to increased public investment in prestige projects aimed at increasing the incumbent’s – or his party’s – re-election probabilities. The article backs the argument analyzing the Chavista democratic period of 1999- 2016. It also identifies parallels with Venezuela’s 1970-1988 period.
    [Show full text]
  • Common Factors in Latin America's Business Cycles
    Forthcoming in the Journal of Development Economics Common Factors in Latin America’s Business Cycles Marco Aiolfi Luis A. V. Catão1 Allan Timmermann Goldman Sachs Research Department Rady School, UCSD Asset Management IADB and IMF and CREATES Final Version: 7 May 2010 Abstract We develop a common factor approach to reconstruct new business cycle indices for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico (“LAC-4”) from a new dataset spanning 135 years. We establish the robustness of our indices through extensive testing and use them to explore business cycle properties in LAC-4 across outward- and inward-looking policy regimes. We find that output persistence in LAC-4 has been consistently high across regimes, whereas volatility has been markedly time-varying but without displaying a clear-cut relationship with openness. We also find a sizeable common regional factor driven by output and interest rates in advanced countries, including during inward-looking regimes. JEL Classification Numbers: E32, F41, N10 Keywords: International Business Cycles, Factor Models, Latin America 1 Corresponding Author. Address: Research Department, Inter-American Development Bank, 1300 New York Ave., Washington DC 20577. Phone: (202)6233587. E-mail: [email protected]. We thank Ayhan Kose, Simon Johnson, Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti, Adrian Pagan, Valerie Ramey, Luca Sala, Jeffrey Williamson, as well as two anonymous referees for extensive comments and suggestions on earlier drafts. We are also grateful to Nathan Balke and Christina Romer for generously sharing their data with us, and to seminar participants at the Fundação Getulio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro, IDB, IMF, PUC-RJ, UC San Diego, University of Manchester, the World Bank, and at the 2005 EHES and LACEA meetings.
    [Show full text]
  • Page 01 Sept 19.Indd
    ISO 9001:2008 CERTIFIED NEWSPAPER Home | 6 Business | 13 Sport | 21 DFI’s ‘Focus Oil falls after Al Rayyan pip on Qatar’ to US warns on Kharaitiyat, El showcase Qatar health of global Jaish record win film successes. economy. over Al Sailiya. SATURDAY 19 SEPTEMBER 2015 • 5 Dhul-Hijja 1436 • Volume 20 Number 6558 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com [email protected] | [email protected] Editorial: 4455 7741 | Advertising: 4455 7837 / 4455 7780 Qatar to spend Clashes in Jerusalem on ‘day of rage’ JERUSALEM: Palestinians clashed yesterday with Israeli security forces in Jerusalem $220bn on and the occupied West Bank after Hamas called for a “day of rage” over tensions at Al Aqsa mosque. In Jerusalem, three policemen major projects were injured as a firebomb struck their van in Jabal Mukaber District and eight Palestinians were arrested, including at least Oil fall not to hit development three youth. Police fired tear gas and rubber DOHA: Qatar is prioritising Giving rationale, S&P said cited bullets as protesters pelted them existing development projects Qatar as a wealthy economy and with stones in neighbourhoods in view of falling oil prices and said it estimates the country’s per around the Mount of Olives, plans to award about $220bn capita GDP (income) at $81,000 including Shuafat refugee camp. worth of large-scale investment this year. But the situation was calm in the projects over the next 10 years. It, however, added that Qatar’s Old City and at Al Aqsa mosque The investment programme economy remained undiversi- compound. will focus on infrastructure, edu- fied with hydrocarbons sector Officials said about 3,000 cation and health, says global creating about 55 percent of its policemen had deployed after credit rating agency Standard GDP and 90 percent of govern- three days of violence at the and Poor’s, affirming stable out- ment revenues, and 85 percent of sensitive site during the Jewish look ‘AA/A-1+’ ratings on Qatar.
    [Show full text]
  • The Resource Curse and Political Cycles in Developing Countries: Is There a Connection? the Case of Venezuela2
    ALEJANDRO MÁRQUEZ-VELÁZQUEZ1 Freie Universität Berlin, Department of Economics and Institute for Latin American Studies The resource curse and political cycles in developing countries: Is there a connection? The case of Venezuela2 ABSTRACT The main lesson of the resource curse literature is that developing and natural resource-rich countries need to save most of their oil windfalls in foreign currency to avoid it. Moreover, recent contributions to the political cycle literature predict stronger cycles in these countries. This paper investigates how political cycles might explain low oil windfall savings in countries affected by the resource curse. Using the case of Venezuela, this paper argues that the presence of periods of oil-price explosiveness leads to power concentration and increased public investment in prestige projects aimed at increasing the reelection probabilities of the incumbent or his party. To back the argument the article analyzes the Chavista democratic period of 1999–2016. It will also identify parallels to the 1970–1988 period in Venezuela. JEL Codes: D72, E62, O11, Q32. Keywords: oil windfalls, political cycles, resource curse, Venezuela. 1 Address: Institute for Latin American Studies, Rüdesheimer Str. 54/56, 14197 Berlin, Germany. Telephone: + 49 30 838 72644. Fax: +49 30 838 55464. Email: [email protected] 2 Version: 6.1.2 (work in progress, please do not cite nor circulate). 1 2 he 1970s are remembered in the Global North as a crisis prone decade, one in which the dilemmas posed by stagflation dominated the public T debate. However, in the major oil exporting countries within the Global South, the memories of the 1970s are related to bonanza times.
    [Show full text]
  • Centre for Economic History the Australian National University Discussion Paper Series !
    CENTRE FOR ECONOMIC HISTORY THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY DISCUSSION PAPER SERIES ! AUSTRALIA'S MAJOR TERMS OF TRADE AND COMMODITY SHOCKS, 1800- 2013: SOURCES AND IMPACTS NIGEL STAPLEDON UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES DISCUSSION PAPER NO. 2013-10 NOVEMBER 2013 THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY ACTON ACT 0200 AUSTRALIA T 61 2 6125 3590 F 61 2 6125 5124 E [email protected] http://rse.anu.edu.au/CEH !"#$%&'(&)#*+&,-%*./%0#*12*.%&3/*!43*5-00-3($6*78-9:#;*<=>>?@><AB* 7-"%9/#*!43*C0D&9$#* E(F/'*7$&D'/3-4G* H4(I/%#($6*12*E/J*7-"$8*K&'/#* E-I/0L/%*@><A* Abstract Commodities have been central to structural change in the Australian economy with the 2000s expansion of mining seen as raising the spectre of the Dutch disease. If the assumption in the standard Heckscher- Olin trade model that labour and capital are not mobile between countries is relaxed, it is observed that the commodities boom which under-pinned Australia’s rapid expansion in the period 1800-90 drew in significant amounts of labour and capital. In lifting the absolute size of the economy, it proved to be a positive for manufacturing and other sectors of the economy. The period 1890-1965 was a slow growth phase for commodities with a structural shift towards other sectors, even if it meant Australia shifted from leading to lagging in growth in GDP per capita. Both these two phases highlight the capacity of the economy to make significant structural adjustment, downplaying the perceived threat of the Dutch disease. The second commodities expansion phase commenced in the mid-1960s, with the two booms in the 1960s and the 2000s.
    [Show full text]