196/YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE!
cocoa) in 1995-96, there is a clear downward trend. Since 1980, the
value of a basket of sub-Saharan export products has been halved
relative to the value of imports from the North. Africa has reacted to
this decline by increasing the overall volume of exports onto the world
market-by some 50 per cent between 1985 and 1992. But this is not
a solution, since prices for these export products have been dropping
faster than those on imports from the North. In fact, in the present
system of world trade, the countries of the South are disadvantaged,
since any increase in the volume of their exports tends to decrease
their value as demand stagnates or falls in the North. Sub-Saharan
Africa is particularly disadvantaged since it exports far fewer manu
factured goods than Latin America and East and Southeast Asia.
As a result, sub-Saharan Africa's trade deficit continues to rise.
More than ten years of IMF and World Bank-dictated structural
adjustment policies have produced a devastating economic failure.
Table 14.3 Evolution of the balance of trade in sub-Saharan Africa
(Sbn)
1980 1990 1995 1996
2.2 -0.6 -11.4 -11.5Source: World Bank, Global Development Finance, 1997.
Low Foreign Investment, High MNC Profit Repatriation
In 19 9 5, sub-Saharan Africa accounted for only 1 per cent of foreign
direct investment (FDI) made in developing countries - S2.2 billion
in FDI out of a total of S240.3 billion (Alibert, 1996, p. 6). The
situation is even worse given that 90 per cent of this investment is
made in a handful of the region's 48 countries - South Africa, and a
few oil and mineral-producing countries such as Nigeria, Angola,
Gabon and Cameroon.
Table 14.4 Net flow of foreign direct investment in sub-Saharan
Africa (Sbn)
1980 1990 1994 1995 1996
0 0.9 3 2.2 2.6Source: World Bank, Global Development Finance, 1997.