The Unassuming Economist

From a new IMF country report:

“The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) member countries have experienced growth acceleration since 2012. Relative to an earlier reference period in the 1990s, the WAEMU’s recent strong growth has coincided with an increase in macroeconomic stability and investment, improvement in political institutions, improvement in the terms of trade, and increase in productivity.”

“Real GDP per capita in WAEMU countries has remained mostly stagnant while it has increased in other LIDCs (Figure 2). Income per capita in the WAEMU was close to that of the group of low and middle-income countries or low income developing countries or SSA in the early 1960s. However, since then, in terms of per capita income, WAEMU’s countries have experienced a widening gap relative to other LIDCs. While the share of the WAEMU income per capita in purchasing power parity—PPP—was 108 percent of that of the group of low-income developing countries in the early 1960s, it dropped to 65 percent in 2017.”

Continue reading here.