While food price spikes caused by drought, war, economic factors, inefficient regional markets or agricultural policy are not uncommon, in time a measure of stabilisation usually occurs. The problem for African consumers is that almost everywhere the trend is persistently upwards. Kenya’s food price inflation has averaged about 12.5% a year for the past five years; Ghana’s averages 8% a year; even in Botswana, which has generally managed inflation better than most, the average is 5% a year. Only in the eight countries in the West Africa Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) countries, where the CFA franc is pegged to the Euro, is the five year average closer to 5% a year than the double digit inflation common elsewhere on the continent. The effect of incessant annual increases of these magnitudes is pernicious, the more so when accompanied by rising fuel prices.
While food prices rise constantly, few are able to increase their earnings to match. Read:
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According to the African Development Bank, inter-African trade made up just 16% of the continent’s total trade in 2014. That figure has increased from 10% in 2004, but it is still low compared with other regions of the world. Among the bits of the continent that lose out worst are landlocked countries and areas such as Lake Tanganyika, which are far from both their capital cities and the sea. Poor infrastructure is not the only problem—bureaucracy and other trade barriers matter, too—but it is a significant one. According to a World Bank review, “landlocked developing countries, especially in Africa, bear exorbitant transport costs”. Read:
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