The ability to create faster, better and cheaper solutions using minimal resources is poised to drive global growth in 2016 and beyond.
Without innovation in the agricultural sector, we’d only be able to feed, say, one billion people out of the current seven. ProFlowers/Flickr.
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Through creating entrepreneurs and boosting global collaboration, science has the potential to drive economic growth and innovation – if only the government would properly fund it.
Too often the government’s economic plans have relied on overly optimistic expectations of future growth.
Entrepreneurs such as Angola’s Isabel dos Santos have grown a portfolio of companies to very large scale rather than one big behemoth.
EPA/Paulo Novais
Without true structural reform and business investment the G20 economies will be unable to deliver on their lofty growth ambitions.
The African continent is embracing technology in varying degrees. Swimmers use a selfie stick to take a picture of themselves in shallow waters of the River Nile outside Khartoum, Sudan.
REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
Science and technology is seen as a key driver of a nation’s economic fortunes. How is the African continent faring a decade after the first major global survey on countries’ performance?
Like other middle-income economies, South Africa suffers from a high rate of unemployment and an under-skilled workforce.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
South Africa’s lack of a clear policy direction, poor leadership, corruption and electricity supply problems will be the major constraints to its economic growth over the next 20 years.
South African exports to the rest of the continent have more than doubled over the past 20 years. This has been driven by agricultural products, including maize.
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The demand for agricultural products in Africa is expected to rise over the next 35 years due to factors such as population growth, urbanisation, economic growth and changing diets.
Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and IMF head Christine Lagarde.
Reuters/Francois Lenoir
Greece can learn a lot from Africa’s 1980s and 1990s experience of living with structural adjustment (austerity). The damage has been long-lasting – not only on economies, but also directly on people.
Trade among African countries is the lowest globally as barriers to the easy movement of goods across borders remain.
Reuters/James Akena
Sub-Saharan African countries have the lowest trade among themselves compared with other regions. This is why there has been a major focus on reducing red tape and other non-tariff trade barriers
Not all of the post-independence period in Africa has been an economic failure.
Reuters/Philimon Bulawayo
Africa’s growth failure happened because of a combination of external economic shocks and a less-than-perfect policy response, from both international donors and national economic policymakers.
Digging in: China’s UN climate pledge shows it is serious about doing the heavy lifting in going green.
China’s formal climate target shows that the world’s largest greenhouse emitter is determined to green its economy on an unprecedented scale - and that it can bring the rest of the world along for the ride.
Is Jeb Bush’s 4% growth promise too good to be true?
Reuters
Jeb Bush recently announced his candidacy for president by declaring that “our country is on a very bad course” and promised to fix this with the striking promise of “4% growth, and the 19 million new…
Remittance recipients whose priority is the socioeconomic improvements of their lives were found to be less engaged with democratic processes.
Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
Remittances may hinder the development of democracy in sub-Saharan Africa. A lot depends on whether recipients value rights and freedom much more than improving their standard of living.
South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago is the third since the bank adopted a more transparent way of operating.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
The South African Reserve Bank is a fine example of clear communication of the decision whether to hold, increase, or decrease interest rates. It also gives clear signals of future decisions.
Millions of Nigeria’s young people are turning to the informal sector.
Reuters/Akintunde Akinleye
Nigeria has been among the fastest growing economies this past decade but only 25% of the country’s population has benefited from this growth, leaving the majority trapped in the informal sector.
Modi’s first year has been a true case study in the politics of hope.
Money Sharma/EPA/AAP
Principal Research Fellow, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, and Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, The University of Melbourne