Explaining Sudan's economic and political turmoil

“Why Africa Had to Adjust” Collier, Bruno Perspectives on Aid and Development

➢ Most of Africa’s economies failed to diversify their export based economies and continued to rely on one or two commodities

I. Understanding the stagnation and decline 1. The main factors behind the stagnation and decline were poor

policies, macroeconomic and sectoral 2. Protectionist trade policies and government monopolies reduced the

competition so vital for increasing productivity 3. The development strategy across the continent has a clear bias against

exports, heavily yaxing agricultural exports, one of the largest suppliers of foreign exchange

II. Domestic factors: Poor policies largely to Blame 1. Overvalued exchange rates caused decline 2. Heavy government spending 3. Inward-looking trade policy

a) Competition increases productivity while trade restrictions increase input prices and the cost of capital, choking growth

4. Political instability a) Political and social stability also are usually associated with

higher rates of growth→ the instability in sub-Saharan Africa explains its poor performance

1.