Is the African Renaissance for Real?

Carnegie Endowment submits:

Africa’s improved growth performance in recent years has been widely noted. GDP growth in the decade before the Great Recession was double that of the previous decade, though it started from a low base. Despite this gain, however, the advance in per-capita incomes in Africa continues to lag behind that of other developing regions.

Africa’s growth acceleration was associated with a number of favorable factors, notably the large improvement in Africa’s terms of trade, a measure of the difference between the growth of export and import prices. Some of these factors may turn out to be temporary, but others reflect improved policies, especially in macroeconomic management and education. Together with reduced external debt (partly the result of debt forgiveness), these improvements appear to have helped Africa avoid recession during the global crisis in 2009.