Prices Have Risen for Many of Africa’s Major Export Commodities, Not Just Oil

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AFRICA
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S SILK ROAD
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CHINA AND INDIA
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S NEW ECONOMIC FRONTIER
Still, a number of countries in Africa are diversifying their exports, no longer relying solely on the export of a few raw commodities. Exports are increasingly composed of light manufactured goods, processed foods, horticulture, and services such as tourism. Some countries—such as Nigeria and South Africa—have been increasing their shares of exports in technology-based products. In fact, they are moving up the technology ladder and exporting low- to medium-technology products in sectors where Asian countries are increasingly putting less emphasis.
Country-Level Patterns and Performance of African-Asian Trade
and Investment Flows
There has been a dramatic increase in trade flows between Africa and Asia,
and this trend is a major bright spot in Africa’s trade performance. These trade flows are largely driven by economic complementarities between the two regions. Africa has growing demand for Asia’s manufactured goods and machinery, and demand in Asia’s developing economies is growing for
Africa’s natural resources, and increasingly for labor-intensive goods. Factor endowments and other economic resources will likely continue to yield these strong country-level African-Asian complementarities, indicating the likely sustainability of the current African-Asian trade boom.
The volume of African exports to Asia is growing at an accelerated rate:
while exports from Africa to Asia grew annually by 15 percent between
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