IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/uma/periwp/wp254.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Supporting Africa’s Post-Crisis Growth: The Role of Macroeconomic Policies

Author

Listed:
  • Zuzana Brixiová
  • Léonce Ndikumana

Abstract

The authors discuss macroeconomic policies that would help African countries, especially the low-income countries, reach strong, sustained and shared growth in the post-crisis world. They review, with a special focus on LICs, macroeconomic policies in Africa prior to the crisis. The working paper then discusses factors behind ‘the Africa surprise’ that is the continent’s overall good performance during the crisis and relatively fast recovery. It underscores that in the aftermath of the crisis, the emphasis of the macroeconomic policy needs to shift from the objective of very low inflation that predominated prior to the crisis towards growth. Fiscal policy is key in this regard, through public outlays on infrastructure anchored in the medium term expenditure frameworks that would also have a counter-cyclical role. Where conditions allow, frontier market LICs may want to consider adopting flexible inflation targeting frameworks that would provide sufficient room for expansion of credit to the private sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Zuzana Brixiová & Léonce Ndikumana, 2011. "Supporting Africa’s Post-Crisis Growth: The Role of Macroeconomic Policies," Working Papers wp254, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
  • Handle: RePEc:uma:periwp:wp254
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://per.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/working_papers/working_papers_251-300/WP254.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Graciela L. Kaminsky & Carmen M. Reinhart & Carlos A. Végh, 2005. "When It Rains, It Pours: Procyclical Capital Flows and Macroeconomic Policies," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2004, Volume 19, pages 11-82, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Borensztein, E. & De Gregorio, J. & Lee, J-W., 1998. "How does foreign direct investment affect economic growth?1," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 115-135, June.
    3. James Heintz & Léonce Ndikumana, 2010. "Working Paper 108 - Is there a Case for Formal Inflation Targeting in Sub-Saharan Africa?," Working Paper Series 245, African Development Bank.
    4. Hui Tong & Shang-Jin Wei, 2011. "The Composition Matters: Capital Inflows and Liquidity Crunch During a Global Economic Crisis," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(6), pages 2023-2052.
    5. John Serieux, 2009. "Aid and Savings in Sub-saharan Africa: Should we Worry about Rising Aid Levels?," Working Papers 50, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    6. James Heintz & Léonce Ndikumana, 2010. "Is There a Case for Formal Inflation Targeting in Sub-Saharan Africa?," Working Papers wp218, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    7. Reinhart, Carmen M. & Talvi, Ernesto, 1998. "Capital flows and saving in Latin America and Asia: a reinterpretation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 45-66, October.
    8. Leonce Ndikumana & James Boyce, 2011. "Capital flight from sub-Saharan Africa: linkages with external borrowing and policy options," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(2), pages 149-170.
    9. Norman Loayza & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel & Luis Servén, 2000. "Saving in Developing Countries: An Overview," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 14(3), pages 393-414, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Léonce Ndikumana & Zuzana Brixiova & Kaouther Abderrahim, 2010. "Working Paper 117 - Supporting Africa's Post-Crisis Growth: The Role of Macroeconomic Policies," Working Paper Series 254, African Development Bank.
    2. Lavan Mahadeva & Javier Gómez Pineda, 2009. "The international cycle and Colombian monetary policy," Borradores de Economia 557, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    3. Baharumshah, Ahmad Zubaidi & Thanoon, Marwan Abdul-Malik, 2006. "Foreign capital flows and economic growth in East Asian countries," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 70-83.
    4. Iamsiraroj, Sasi, 2016. "The foreign direct investment–economic growth nexus," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 116-133.
    5. Sangyup Choi & Davide Furceri & João Tovar Jalles, 2022. "Heterogeneous gains from countercyclical fiscal policy: new evidence from international industry-level data [Optimal investment with costly reversibility]," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 74(3), pages 773-804.
    6. Philipp Harms & Pierre-Guillaume Méon, 2013. "The Growth Effects of Greenfield Investment and Mergers and Acquisitions: Econometric Investigation and Implication for MENA Countries," Working Papers 794, Economic Research Forum, revised Nov 2013.
    7. Eswar Prasad & Shang-Jin Wei, 2007. "The Chinese Approach to Capital Inflows: Patterns and Possible Explanations," NBER Chapters, in: Capital Controls and Capital Flows in Emerging Economies: Policies, Practices, and Consequences, pages 421-480, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Gerson Nhapulo & João Nicolau, 2017. "Assessing Nonlinear Dynamics of Central Bank Reaction Function: The Case of Mozambique," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 85(1), pages 28-51, March.
    9. Bastian Gawellek & Jingjing Lyu & Bernd Süssmuth, 2016. "Did Chinese Outward Activity Attenuate or Aggravate the Great Recession in Developing Countries?," CESifo Working Paper Series 5735, CESifo.
    10. AFZAL, Muhammad, 2013. "National Savings And Foreign Capital In Pakistan," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 13(2), pages 197-206.
    11. Robert Dekle & Cheng Hsiao & Siyan Wang, 2001. "The Real Effects of Capital Inflows on Emerging Markets," Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies (RPBFMP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 4(02), pages 165-202.
    12. Ahmet Benlialper & Hasan Cömert, 2016. "Implicit asymmetric exchange rate peg under inflation targeting regimes: the case of Turkey," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 40(6), pages 1553-1580.
    13. Morris Goldstein & Daniel Xie, 2009. "The impact of the financial crisis on emerging Asia," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Oct, pages 27-80.
    14. Malagón González, Jonathan, 2017. "Four essays on central banking in Latin America under balance of payments dominance," Other publications TiSEM fefd7d80-acd4-4abb-b152-7, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    15. Philipp Harms & Pierre-Guillaume Méon, 2011. "An FDI is an FDI is an FDI? The growth effects of greenfield investment and mergers and acquisitions in developing countries," Working Papers 11.10, Swiss National Bank, Study Center Gerzensee.
    16. Davis, J. Scott, 2015. "The macroeconomic effects of debt- and equity-based capital inflows," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 81-95.
    17. Mwankemwa, Lusajo P. & Mlamka, Bonaventura, 2022. "Effects of Monetary Policy on Bank’s Credit Dynamics in Tanzania," African Journal of Economic Review, African Journal of Economic Review, vol. 10(2), March.
    18. Enock Nyorekwa Twinoburyo & Nicholas M Odhiambo, 2018. "Can Monetary Policy drive economic growth? Empirical evidence from Tanzania," Contemporary Economics, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw., vol. 12(2), June.
    19. Xingwang Qian & Andreas Steiner, 2014. "International Reserves and the Composition of Foreign Equity Investment," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(2), pages 379-409, May.
    20. Ahmet Benlialper & Hasan Cömert, 2016. "Implicit asymmetric exchange rate peg under inflation targeting regimes: the case of Turkey," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 40(6), pages 1553-1580.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    macroeconomic policies; growth; capital flows; Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E5 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit
    • F43 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Economic Growth of Open Economies
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:uma:periwp:wp254. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Judy Fogg (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/permaus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.