A new list of the fastest-growing economies in Africa — and by extension, the world — put out recently by the African Development Bank in its African Economic Outlook 2013 includes some of the poorest countries in Africa, some of which are developing off an extremely low base. At the top are Libya (11.6%), Sierra Leone (9.6%), Chad (9.5%), Côte d’Ivoire (9.3%), Democratic Republic of Congo (8.8%) andGhana (8.4%). Growth rates are used by fund managers, investment bankers and others to portray Africa as the new frontier for growth, in essence to talk up their book.
But high levels of poverty are pervasive across these same economies. Not only is underdevelopment a potential security threat, not fully understanding the nature and spread of that growth also presents investment risks.
Read more: High African growth rates distort the real development image:
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