UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
Table III.7
Source: International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Economic Outlook and International
Financial Statistics; Economist Intelligence Unit; National Sources; ECA secretariat.
Payments for shipment costs are much in excess of their receipts. This reflects the dominance of
developed countries in the areas of shipping and insurance, as well as the effect of increased
imports, rising freight rates, and discriminating rates charged to offset the cost of idle time that
ships are forced to spend at the ports of developing countries because of poor facilities. About 95
per cent of Africa's foreign trade is seaborne. However, Africa's own fleet is small and shipping
costs are a higher proportion of import costs in Africa as compared to other regions. Bulk transport
accounts for 40 per cent of African shipping, but, in the past, African countries have concentrated on
regular lines that move only 20 per cent of their traffic. Insurance charges are usually aggregated
with freight, and the insurance and reinsurance business are dominated by non-African firms.
Furthermore, even where insurance is done with African insurance companies, the re-insurance would
still have to be done abroad. A review of the statistics on services between 1985 and 1992 reveals
that in the case of shipment, inflows on account of freight and insurance accounted for 10.6 per cent
of inflows for services in 1985, while in 1992, it accounted for only 6.4 per cent of inflows for
services. In 1985, outflows on account of shipping and freight accounted for 33.8 per cent of
outflows on account of services while 30.2 per cent of all outflows were on account of shipping and
insurance in 1992. Net outflows for shipment, which were US$6446 million in 1985 rose to US$7331
million in 1992.
Other transportation in the services account, which refers to handling, anchorage, pilotage, towage,
aircraft landing, provision of ships stores and bunkers, make a positive contribution to the services
account of Egypt and Tunisia because of their well- developed port infrastructure and facilities. In
the case of sub-Saharan Africa, they resulted in net, albeit declining, outflows during the period
1990-1992, totalling US$572 million in 1990, US$336 million in 1991, before falling to US$96 million
in 1992.
Other official services reflect the high foreign expenses of foreign missions in Africa. On a net
basis, the services have made a declining negative contribution to Africa's service sector. In 1985,
they accounted for 9.5 per cent of the inflows to the service sector, while in 1992, they accounted
for 9.3 per cent of inflows. In the case of outflows, in 1985, they accounted for 9.5 per cent of
outflows, while in 1992, they accounted for 8.7 per cent.
As already pointed out, the deficit on the services account is made up largely of payments for
banking, insurance and freight, emanating from the disproportionate dependence of African countries on
foreign banks and insurers, and foreign carriers, and is positively correlated with the volume of
trade. Therefore, it can be expected that the services deficit will grow with an expansion in the
volume of trade, unless African countries redouble their efforts to provide more and more of these
services themselves. This is likely to be an uphill task, considering that the liberalization of
services under the Uruguay Round Agreement will expose African suppliers to even keener competition
from more efficient producers of such services. This is the more reason why the development of
banking, insurance and transport and communication facilities to cater for the needs of external trade
deserve to be given more attention than has so far been the case. Indeed, these crucial components of
international transactions should occupy a prominent place in the development agenda of African
Governments.
Since 1990, there has been an improvement in the case of other private services like non-merchandise
insurance, reinsurance and banking related outflows, which reflect some revival of the banking and
insurance industry on the continent, and the establishment of the African Reinsurance Corporation in
1991. Other private services accounted for 22.9 per cent of inflows in 1985, while in 1992, they
accounted for 24.6 per cent. In the case of outflows, other private services accounted for 32.9 per
cent in 1985, and 31.1 per cent in 1992. On a net basis, outflows on account of other private
services fell from its US$4,761 million in 1985 to US$3,377 million in 1992.
Given the small size of their economies and the huge amount of capital required for establishing
viable and competitive enterprises in the services sector, cooperative arrangements among African
countries is indispensable to success. There have been several proposals and some attempts at
subregional levels to establish shipping lines, insurance and banking institutions, air lines,
communication facilities, etc.
1. Deficits on factor income reflect high cost of debt servicing
The deficit on investment income is a reflection of the capital dependency of African countries on
the rest of the world and is unlikely to improve significantly in the foreseeable future. Payments
for investment comprise interest payments on external debt and repatriation of dividends on foreign
direct and indirect (portfolio) investments. While both of these liabilities would continue to
generate resource outflow until the region turns a net creditor, preference should be accorded to
foreign investments. In addition to being a vehicle for the transfer of technology, managerial and
marketing skills, this kind of resource flow would lessen the burden of mandatory debt servicing since
the subsequent outflow of payments is conditional on, and derive from the productivity and
profitability of the investment inflows.
In the case of income flows, direct investment income has always been negative for Africa. Interest
and dividend payments for foreign private investment represent a sizable component of the deficit in
the invisible account. Net receipts from portfolio investments have likewise always been negative for
Africa. In the case of income-related flows in 1985, inflows due to investment were 69.1 per cent of
income flows, and, in 1992, it was 69.9 per cent. Likewise, outflows due to investment were 93.1 per
cent of the income related outflows in 1985 and 93 per cent of the total in 1992. On a net basis,
outflows on account of investment rose from US$11935 million in 1985 to US$17360 million in 1992.
The share of inflows on account of labour income fell from 30.3 per cent in 1985 to 28.9 per cent in
1992, while the share of outflows on account of labour income, which was 6 per cent in 1985, stood at
5.9 per cent in 1992. The recession-induced unemployment in Europe and South Africa reduced the
demand for migrant labour. The decline would have been even higher but for the oil-rich labour-poor
Middle Eastern countries where employment picked up following normalization of the Persian Gulf war.
Property income outflows have, however, been negative, but labour income has made a positive
contribution to income flows. The share of inflows due to property income, which was 0.6 per cent in
1985 rose to 1.2 per cent in 1992, while the share of outflows due to property income rose from 0.9
per cent in 1985 to 1.2 per cent in 1992.
2. Trends in capital account and foreign investment
Net foreign resource inflow in 1994 was US$19.2 billion, an increase of 32 per cent over the 1993
level. The major sources were external borrowing, although non-debt creating flows in the form of
foreign investment are on the rise.
Inflows of foreign investment in 1994 were 7 per cent higher than their 1993 level and accounted for
39 per cent of the net foreign resource inflows. Although the country destinations of such investment
tend to favour the oil-exporting and mineral-rich countries, others may also attract foreign capital,
given the drive towards privatization of public enterprises, the emergence of stock markets and the
generally favourable foreign investment climate now fostered by African Governments.
In the capital account, direct investment has shown an irregular pattern across countries. Foreign
direct and equity investment is directly linked to productive investment, and facilitates the transfer
of technology, managerial and marketing skills. In the capital account, outflows related to direct
investment increased by 35.1 per cent between 1985 and 1992, amounting to US$3,253 million in the
latter year. Portfolio investment has been negative in recent years. Outflows on this account
increased from US$165 million in 1985 to US$2,470 million in 1992. With amortization payments and
capital flight, net capital outflows from Africa have been persistently negative. Outflows on account
of long-term capital increased from US$377 million in 1985 to US$7,894 million in 1992, while outflows
on account of short-term capital increased by 37.9 per cent from US$2,794 million in 1985 to US$3,853
million in 1992. The ratio of reserves to imports for Africa is low but improving. Reserves were
worth 0.2 months in 1985, 1989 and 1990, 0.3 months in 1991, and 0.4 months in 1992 and 1993.
In all, Africa's balance-of-payments problems are a reflection of the lack of structural
transformation in African economies, and consequently, in African trade, during the past three
decades. The long-term solution to persistent deficits is structural change and diversification,
which will increase the capacity of African economies to minimize the impact of adverse developments
and take advantage of the opportunities in the world market. There is need also for rigorous export
promotion and a programme to support domestic industries by improved infrastructure, and a vigorous
training programme for skilled labour. Regional cooperation and intra-African trade would make a
major contribution to export diversification, food security, export promotion, and the development of
banking, insurance and shipping services. All this will have a favourable impact on Africa's balance
of payments in the long term, and protect African countries from getting bogged down again with an
intractable debt burden.
C. External debt
According to the World Bank, developing countries debt may have reached US$1,945 billion by the end
of 1994. This is a continuation of the fast growth in debt commitments which started in 1990, and has
since accelerated, increasing by 7.3 per cent in 1994, compared to 6.8 per cent in 1993, an average of
5 per cent in 1990-1992 (table III.8).
Table III.8 External debt of developing countries by
region, 1990-1994
(US$ billion)
Source: World Bank, World Debt Tables 1994-1995, December 1994.
a including unspecified debtors
p projections
This development is essentially due to the increase of new debt commitments, and particularly of
private capital investments in the "new emerging economies" of South East Asia and Latin
America. According to the IMF (World Outlook, October 1994), the average value of net foreign direct
investment (FDI) in developing countries was US$34.2 billion per year in 1990-1993, compared to
US$13.3 billion only in 1983-1989. Thus, a very important change has occurred which, unfortunately,
however, has bypassed the African region, where the same type of flows averaged a mere US$1.8 billion
in 1990-1993, hardly more than the US$1.4 billion registered in 1983-1989.
External debt, which is estimated to have increased by 3.2 per cent to reach US$312.2 billion by the
end of 1994 (table III.9), therefore has grown at a slower pace than in other developing areas: East
Asia and the Pacific (12.9 per cent), the Middle East (15 per cent), South Asia (6.6 per cent), and
Latin America and the Caribbean (4.0 per cent). Africa's debt is also the least important, in volume
terms, estimated at 16.0 per cent of the total of developing countries' debt; but it is the heaviest
in per capita terms and in terms of African countries'capacity to service.
When indicators such as debt/GDP, debt/goods and services exports, and debt service/goods and
services exports ratios, are taken into account, the situation for Africa is not only the worst; it
has gotten worse rather than improved with time (See Table III.9).
Table III.9 Africa's external debt and debt service, 1991-1994
Sources: ECA secretariat calculations based on the World Bank's World Debt Tables, 1994-
1995 and various sources.
* Preliminary estimates
a including the Sudan
b including South Africa
... Not available
While debt-servicing payments remained very high, the persistent negative net transfers on debt over
the entire period 1990-1993 is attributable to the low level of fresh disbursements. Furthermore,
despite various rescheduling efforts, arrears were accumulating, compounding the problems of repayment
and adding to the overall debt stock. It is noteworthy that the value of short-term debt rose from
US$37.6 billion in 1990 to US$45.3 billion in 1993 while that of long- and medium-term official debt
decreased over the period 1991-1993, and levelled off at US$240 billion. The share of interest
arrears in short-term debt rose from 33 per cent in 1990 to 37 per cent in 1992 and virtually reached
41 per cent in 1993.
The overall tendency depicted above conceals important differences among regions and countries. The
external debt stock for the six countries of North Africa, the Sudan inclusive, rose only slightly in
1994, by 0.5 per cent, whereas there was a record 5.4 per cent increase in the external debt stock for
sub-Saharan Africa. The debt and debt-service ratios for sub-Saharan Africa were 76 and 12 per cent
compared to 65.4 per cent and 31.1 per cent for North Africa. In North Africa, net transfers on debt
fell from US$-3.5 billion in 1992 to US$-5.4 billion in 1993, indicating that debt service payments
far out-stripped fresh disbursements. In sub-Saharan Africa, there was a slight improvement in net
transfers on debt over the period 1992-1993 and a significant development in 1994 when, for the first
time since 1991, a positive balance of about US$2 billion emerged from the disbursements and payments
made for the year. But the improvement in net transfers to sub-Saharan Africa, significant as it is,
cannot be interpreted as an indication of a larger resource inflow in 1994. Rather, it conceals the
difficulty facing sub-Saharan Africa in servicing its debt, with arrears increasing by US$3 billion,
from US$37 billion in 1993 to about US$40 billion in 1994.
It is well known that the African debt crisis has been fuelled, in part, by a global financial
crisis. It is therefore not a temporary liquidity crisis that could be resolved by the rescheduling
agreements designed by the Paris Club or London Club creditors. Furthermore, Africa's socio-economic
problems have greatly intensified in the past four years. During this period, many African countries
have not enjoyed the stable domestic conditions and supportive international environment which are
prerequisites for sustainable growth. Among the domestic problems were more vocal social claims, even
as resources became more scarce, and disorganized and weakening national mechanisms and institutions.
The unfavourable terms of trade for Africa's major exports in the world market for most of this period
made matters worse, by reducing the capacity of governments to cope with domestic pressures.
Given the poor results obtained in Africa under the various debt relief schemes, it is necessary to
reconsider the debt issue and its effects on the prospects for African economic recovery and growth.
The current debt-relief schemes are more of palliatives, suited to countries whose payment defaults
result from temporary liquidity crisis rather than from serious solvency crisis and structural
economic problems requiring long-term remedial measures. The majority of African countries, more
particularly those whose crisis can be resolved only by raising and maintaining export revenues at a
level compatible with their debt servicing, have all undertaken comprehensive programmes of economic
reform over the past 10 years. However, such reforms in themselves have not been sufficient to
restore private investor confidence or bring the debt-service burden down to manageable proportions.
While the efforts deployed so far by the bilateral creditors have provided partial relief for the
official debt burden of very few countries, most of the heavily and severely indebted countries are
still facing enormous payment difficulties. Of the 36 developing countries whose debt overhang ratio
(that is, ratio of present value of debt to goods and services exports) and liquidity burden ratio
(that is, ratio of debt service due to goods and services exports) were, respectively, higher than 200
per cent and 15 per cent in 1994, 28 are in sub-Saharan Africa. Such a situation calls for radical
and exceptional measures if these countries are to emerge from the debt crisis trap. Most of the
efforts have focused mainly on official debt, but the complexity of Africa's debt problems requires
that other components of debt, in particular commercial and multilateral debts, need to be taken into
account, lest they undermine the efforts made on official debt. Indeed, only a coordination of all
debt relief initiatives, within a global framework, would make it possible to break once and for all
the vicious circle of the debt crisis.
The restructuring exercises which followed the Toronto and Trinidad summits of the G.7 certainly set
the stage for a new approach to the problem of debt burden alleviation, because arrangements for
reductions of debt stock and debt service were for the first time introduced into the mechanisms for
renegotiating official loans and officially guaranteed credits. Nevertheless, because of the
restrictions attached to the scope of coverage, certain types of loans and certain categories of
debtor countries were left out. For example, for the low-income countries, ODA debts were not
cancelled. Also, the measures had very limited impact on the financial situation of countries such as
Côte d'Ivoire, the Niger and Nigeria, whose debt structure is dominated by bank loans.
Moreover, the issue of lending by the multilateral financial institutions remained unaddressed.
Indeed, the fact that loans contracted from those institutions could not be renegotiated - and even
more, that arrears could not be tolerated - meant that some of the resources obtained from bilateral
creditors were transferred to those institutions. The direct consequence was that liquidity did not
improve as much as it should, while failure to reduce the risk of payment defaults made the chances of
mobilizing funds from private donors rather slim.
In December 1991, the Paris Club instituted the Enhanced Toronto Terms containing for the first time
provisions paving the way for a partial reduction in some categories of official debt and debt service
and publicly guaranteed commercial debt of the poorest countries eligible to the IDA. This measure
was accompanied by other unilateral initiatives taken individually by bilateral creditors to reduce
the debt related to their ODA programme. Along with such initiatives, the World Bank decided to offer
heavily indebted countries a series of debt relief options, like the IDA Debt Reduction Facility or
exceptional IDA allocations which would enable such African countries like the Congo, Mozambique,
Niger, Sao Tome and Principle, Uganda and Zambia to pay up their commercial debt arrears or arrears
owed the Bank itself. More recently, at the prodding of the December 1994 G.7 Summit, the Paris Club
creditors are now willing to grant up to 67 per cent of debt or debt service to low income countries
with acute debt overhang provided they implement SAPs for three consecutive years.
Efforts by the African countries to improve their external competitiveness are not by themselves
enough to provide a solution for their debt crisis, even on a medium-term basis. Therefore, an
effective solution to the African debt crisis requires - among other macroeconomic policy orientations
- meaningful and multidimensional measures, involving specific commitments by both creditors and
debtors. If the lending community were to adopt multifaceted radical measures that went beyond the
limited framework of financing payment arrears, to include immediate and massive concessional flows in
conjunction with debt relief, the countries would be able to emerge from the vicious circle of the
debt trap and of repeated rescheduling. The African Common Position on External Debt adopted in 1987
at Addis Ababa by the Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity remains still
topical in that respect.
Admittedly, African countries, themselves have a major role to play in taking appropriate measures to
restructure their economies and to create an enabling environment for domestic and foreign investment.
However, there are two factors which are far from being controlled by African policy-makers: the
dependence of African economies on the industrialized countries, and the high degree of exposure of
African countries to external shocks. Reducing their external dependence, and developing the capacity
to cope with changes in the external environment, require long-term restructuring and adjustment which
would require a good deal of international support to accomplish.
The external debt crisis of Africa must be placed within the global context of Africa's relations
with the rest of the world and seen as a central element in the economic crisis of the continent.
Hence, the formulation of a specific strategy to deal with the African debt crisis must be built
around two major integrated policy measures: the first is immediate action to relieve the pressure of
debt so as to avoid a disintegration of the present fragile economic and social structures; the second
is to restore the external viability of African economies and create favourable conditions that would
attract the financing necessary to achieve economic recovery and promote sustainable growth - the only
feasible way to emerge from the present economic and financial crisis.
D. Resource flows
At 1991 prices, net resource flows to the region were US$23.2 billion in 1992, compared to US$27.7
billion in 1990 and US$34.0 billion in 1985 (table III.10). The indications from figures of net ODA
flows from the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) countries, multilateral institutions and Arab
countries to Africa are that ODA to the region has been falling in current and constant terms since
1990.
Table III.10 Total net resource flows to Africa, 1985 and
1990-1992
(Billion US$)
Source: OECD, Financing and external debt of developing countries, 1992 Survey, Paris 1993.
In 1993, net ODA flows to the region amounted to US$21.4 billion compared to US$24.7 billion in 1992
and US$25.1 billion in 1990. At 1992 prices, however, net ODA flows declined by 11.4 per cent in 1993
to US$21.9 billion, and were only 79.4 per cent of their 1990 levels - an average fall of 5.6 per cent
a year in real terms (table III.11).
Table III.11 Net official development assistance to
African subregions, 1990-1993
(US$ million)
Source: OECD, Development Cooperation Report 1994, Paris 1994.
The steady decline in resource flows to the region in the past 8 years is in contrast with the growth
and financing requirements of developing Africa, particularly the low income African countries. These
countries, because they are faced either with a sharp contraction in private flows or are unable to
borrow from international money markets, have the bulk of their external resources currently provided
by bilateral and multilateral donors. Those countries face various internal and external
difficulties: macroeconomic instability, social turmoil, civil strife, weak and disjointed
institutions, heavy debt burden, unfavourable international economic environment and deteriorating
terms of trade. Their poor performance has deepened the distrust of investors, accentuated the
withdrawal of private donors and increased their dependence on official development finance (ODA).
Since 1990, there has been a marked change in the structure of resource flows: the relative increase
of ODF, estimated at US$3.1 billion for the first three years of the 1990s, was not enough to
compensate for the dwindling receipt of private resource flows. The share of bilateral donor
disbursements has decreased steadily over the years since 1985. While it accounted for 70 per cent of
ODA in 1985, it fell to 68 per cent in 1991 and to 66 per cent in 1992. While multilateral
disbursement has increased over the period, the trend has been irregular. What is more, the volume of
multilateral lending has been modest when compared to the financing needs of the poorest developing
countries as a group.
In the case of bilateral official lending, the concessional element fell by half from 1989 to 1993.
In the case of multilateral lending on concessional terms, which accounted for 45 per cent of official
loans in 1985, the proportion has exceeded 70 per cent since 1990. In contrast, technical assistance
grants expanded by nearly 20 per cent between 1990 and 1993. The trend of the latter component of ODA
would seem to suggest that part of the bilateral inflows has been diverted to technical assistance,
whose cost and effectiveness are increasingly being called into question.
With regard to private financial flows, there has been a slight recovery in foreign direct financial
and portfolio investment but it has been confined to a few countries where economic reforms, in
particular the privatization of public enterprises and parastatals, created opportunities for equity
participation or where the best opportunities for profit exist on account of a stable and expanding
economic environment. On the other hand, net transfers on private lending has worsened to a net
outflow of US$1.7 billion in 1992 and confirming the persistence of negative transfers by commercial
banks from the low-income countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, the fact that private capital
resources are currently more abundant in the world does not guarantee that they will be an automatic
substitute for concessional flows to African countries.
In order to be able to double average per capita income in Africa and reduce poverty over a period of
20-25 years, substantially, a large increase in external financing would be required, in addition to
increased domestic resources, which would require the gross domestic savings rate to be raised to 25-
35 per cent of GDP. While the rebuilding of domestic financing capacity in Africa would depend
primarily on the outcome of ongoing reforms, massive support by Africa's development partners would be
indispensable to support those efforts in the short and medium term. It will be recalled that, at the
beginning of this decade, the United Nations obtained in the New Agenda for the Development of Africa
in the 1990s (UN-NADAF), the renewed commitment of the international community to support development
efforts in Africa. Since Africa's external debt constituted one of the major constraints to the
financing of growth recovery, specific measures were recommended towards reducing the debt-service
burden. It was agreed that the achievement by the African economies of an average annual growth rate
of 6 per cent - the critical threshold to curb absolute poverty - during the decade of the 1990s would
require raising ODA to US$30 billion in 1992 and maintaining its growth rate, in real terms, at an
annual average of 4 per cent until the end of the decade. These resources would supplement debt-
relief measures and others aimed at revitalizing export capacity in such a way as to make development
self-sustaining.
Much would depend on whether donors' response to Africa's needs becomes more positive in the future.
Predictions are now difficult to make because the post-cold war period has given a new dimension to
the policy orientation of ODA. First, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the socialist bloc has
deprived some developing countries of the financial and technical assistance previously provided to
them within the framework of their relations with that bloc. Second, assistance from the oil-
producing Arab countries which was at the level of US$8 billion at the beginning of the 1980s
decreased to US$2 billion during these last years. With the recent peace agreement and prospects of
stability in the Middle East, the region is in greater need of its available resources for its own
development, since reconstruction will be among the main priorities. Third, most of the Development
Assistance Committee (DAC) members - the most important source of official development assistance in
the world - are only just emerging from a long-lasting recession. As one of the consequences of the
austerity programmes dictated by recession, the perception of budgetary allocations to development
assistance by some political groups in the donor countries is changing profoundly, reflecting their
opposition to the spirit of solidarity which characterized actions in the past in favour of
development in the poorest countries.
The outcome of all the developments mentioned above has been stagnation or decline of ODA funds which
has led to the adoption by the donor countries of more constraining eligibility criteria and specific
efficiency ratings. A set of targets and performance criteria, among them poverty reduction,
children's health, demography, anti-AIDS campaigns, environment, women participation in development,
good governance, democracy, human rights, popular participation, promotion of the private sector, will
determine the allocation of public resources to the demanding countries. There will undoubtedly be
more competition among the increasing number of requesting countries for the limited funds available.
As targets are set on the basis of global priorities, countries considered marginal might be
penalized.
It is in that context that the response of donors to Africa's aid requirement should be made. The
initial signs leave little room for optimism. Apart from Japan, which decided in 1993 to raise by 50
per cent its contribution to world development, the member countries of the OECD Development
Assistance Committee have levelled off their contributions at 0.35 per cent of GNP over the last 30
years. The 0.7 per cent target set by the United Nations may not be achieved, because of the ever-
decreasing number of countries even trying to meet it. In order to expand the possibilities for
mobilizing development finance resources for Africa in the coming years, the measures accompanying
development assistance must include debt relief, stabilization of commodity prices and encouragement
of private flows.
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