Position of Agriculture in Sub-Saharan GDP Structure and Economic Performance

Abstract

Africa is a continent with specific problems differentiating this part of the world from other regions. Low economic performance ranks most of African countries among the poorest. On the other hand, African resources and unexploited opportunities offer a potential for a considerable economic development. Agricultural sector plays a specific role in African economic development because its share in total employment and GDP formation is enormous high. The aim of the paper is to analyze main changes in area of GDP structure formation (agricultural, industrial and services sector) which have occurred in selected African (Sub-Saharan) countries during a twenty-year period. The GDP and GDP per capita in Sub-Saharan countries are compared with the world GDP and GDP per capita. The comparative analysis is performed through logarithmic regression and elasticity analysis. The idea is to analyse the relationship existing between GDP and GDP per cap in relation to the GDP value generated by agriculture, industry and services sectors. The special attention is devoted to the position of agricultural sector in relation to the other sectors. The results indicate main trends in economic development and point to the specifics that while many Sub-Saharan countries have reached the modern type of economy with prevailing services in GDP composition, agriculture still dominates in most countries in terms of employment. From the economic point of view it is worth noting that the transformation process in Sub-Saharan Africa still has not reached the level of the global economic transformation. A significant reduction of agriculture’s share in total GDP is to be expected in the future, it is also possible to expect an increasing role of processing industry and especially of services in the regional GDP.JEL classification: E