Steady growth puts Africa on course to dent poverty: World Bank

M&C: Steady growth puts Africa on course to dent poverty: World Bank

Johannesburg - A decade of healthy growth in Africa has put the continent on track to tackle its high poverty levels, the World Bank said Wednesday releasing its 2007 Africa Development Indicators (ADI).

The ADI report is based on over 1,000 indicators covering the economy, human and private-sector development, governance, environment and aid.

'After years of stop-and-start results many African economies appear to be growing at the fast and steady rates needed to put a dent on the region's high poverty rate and attract global investment,' the report found.

Growth in Africa has averaged 5.4 per cent over the past 10 years, a rate on par with the rest of the world described as 'encouraging' by the World Bank. ...

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In a more long-term development, some 18 countries described as "resource poor" had managed to produce sustained growth rates of over 4 per cent over the past decade - as good if not better than some oil producers - by diversifying their economies.

Kenya's booming cut-flower business - the country's second export after tea - was cited as an example of successful diversification, which the World Bank sees as key to avoiding "growth collapses."

"Africa has learned to trade more effectively with the rest of the world, to rely more on the private sector and to avoid the very serious collapses in economic growth that characterized the 1970s, 1980s and even the early 1990s," John Page, the World Bank's chief economist for Africa, said.