DIRECTION OF TRADE OF THE AFRICAN COUNTRIES

DIRECTION OF TRADE OF THE AFRICAN COUNTRIES

--Dr.Debesh Bhowmik

The Middle East and North Africa’s trade to the world rose from 2011 to 2012 both in exports and imports but trade balance surplus reduced marginally. In 2011, they exported 1253.39 billion dollar which rose to 1339.04 billion dollar in 2012 where as import increased from 804.74 billion dollar to 931.25 billion dollar. Even their trade with advanced countries, Western Hemishere increased but decreased in Europe where negative trade balance rose a bit. They exported637.12 billion dollar to Advanced countries in 2011that stepped up to 677.53 million dollar in 2012 where as import rose from 381.97 billion dollar to 417.63 billion dollar. On the other hand their trade to Emerging developing countries, Developing Asia and Sub Saharan Africa had risen to some extent but balance of trade went to either side.

Sub Saharan Africa’s trade to the world has fallen ie, export fell to 369.65billion dollar in 2012 from 372.31 billion dollar in 2011but import rose from 363.33 billion dollar in 2011 to 379.38 billion dollar in 2012 ie a change over surplus to deficit trade balance. Their trade with advanced countries had dwindled both in exports and in imports but surplus balance reduced marginally. Their trade with sub-Saharan Africa had stepped up and even with the developing countries including developing Asia. So, intra-African trade has boosted clearly. They exported 151.86 billion dollar in 2011 which extended to 168.73 billion dollar in 2012 but imported 192.34 billion dollar in 2011 to 211.16 billion dollar in 2012 to the emerging and developing countries. To the developing Asia, they exported 85.23 billion dollar in 2011 that increased to 98.81 billion dollar in 2012 and import shifted from 94.18 billion dollar to 166.30 billion dollar during the same period. But African trade share with respect to developed countries did not moved upward significantly.

	Middle East and North Africa (US billion dollar)
	Export	Import	Export	Import	Export	Import
	2010		2011		2012
World	950.34	709.58	1253.39	804.74	1339.04	931.25
Advanced Economies	484.40	348.15	637.12	381.97	677.53	417.63
Emerging and Developing countries	395.81	355.90	530.18	452.95	569.28	506.98
Developing Asia	235.13	156.93	328.39	199.8	358.52	221.71
Europe	21.41	53.61	27.26	69.10	26.92	89.98
Sub-Saharan Africa	21.21	6.42	25.68	6.99	26.17	8.24
Western Hemishere	8.93	20.69	13.34	29.84	14.18	30.72
	Sub Saharan Africa(US billion dollar)
World	294.47	296.36	372.31	363.33	369.65	379.38
Advanced Economies	162.12	133.64	204.83	159.53	187.35	155.30
Emerging and Developing countries	128.42	152.71	151.86	192.34	168.73	211.16
Developing Asia	72.22	71.23	85.23	94.18	98.81	106.30
Europe	4.61	7.13	5.13	10.87	5.24	10.62
Sub-Saharan Africa	4.82	25.34	5.53	29.41	6.56	31.66
Western Hemishere	11.36	9.78	15.58	13.89	14.23	14.31

 Source-DOT-IMF

DIRECTION OF ADVANCED COUNTRIES TRADE

DIRECTION OF ADVANCED COUNTRIES’ TRADE

--Dr. Debesh Bhowmik

In recent years, the direction of world trade did not change fundamentally too much.As per available data from IMF, it is understood that world trade in both exports and imports concentrated in advanced economies. More or less half of the world trade went to the advanced countries. World export trade to advanced economies in 2011 was 11232.51 billion dollar which stepped down to 11042.31 billion dollar in 2012 and import also stepped down from 10337.78 billion dollar to 10171.08 billion dollar but surplus trade balance dwindled. Both exports and imports of the world to the various regions like Emerging and Developing countries, Developing Asia ,Europe, Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Western Hemishere have increased but the deficit trade balance increased in all regions from 2011 to 2012except in Western Hemishere. On the other hand, the advanced countries’ deficit trade balance to all regions have fallen from 2011 to 2012 except in Emerging and Developing countries where it was reverse and  the exports and imports of Advanced economies to Europe ,Western Hemishere and also in advanced economies  rose but those decreased to Emerging and Developing countries, Developing Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa from 2011 to 2012.So, the changes are the deficit trade balances although decreasing is the phenomenon of direction of trade.These changes affected negatively on developing countries and Asia’s trade and it happened due to financial crisis in USA and debt crisis in EU.Advanced countries’ export have fallen marginally from 1702.72 billion dollar in 2011to 1702.21 billion dollar in 2012 to developing countries and emerging countries and imports increased from 2248.32 billion dollar to 2260.25 billion dollar and both exports and imports have fallen to developing Asia during the period,ie, exports from 709.52 billion dollar to 690.26 billion dollar but imports from 759.42 billion dollar to 723.74 billion dollar .The same trends were observed to SubSaharan Africa whose exports from Advanced economies dwindled from 155.89 billion dollar to 146.98 billion dollar and imports from 237.28 billion dollar to 219.26 billion dollar.This is clearly visible in the following table.

	Advanced Economies(USBillion Dollar)
	Export	Import	Export	Import	Export	import
	2010		2011		2012
World	9209.99	9892.73	10677.73	11567.40	10432.03	11363.42
Advanced Economies	3021.80	3882.93	3564.89	4669.66	3597.08	4681.53
Emerging and developing countries	1464.45	1975.90	1702.72	2748.32	1702.21	2260.25
Developing Asia	566.83	605.56	709.52	759.42	690.26	723.74
Europe	325.82	522.63	356.18	694.00	383.61	745.87
SubSaharan Africa	124.93	179.23	155.89	237.28	146.98	219.26
Western Hemishere	539.08	599.42	639.83	730.1	673.35	732.37
	World(US Billion Dollar)
Advanced Economies	9572.25	8890.68	11232.51	10337.78	11042.31	10171.08
Emerging and developing countries	5139.48	6249.22	6281.44	7726.59	6514.94	7381.03
Developing Asia	2369.36	2971.17	2879.34	3505.9	2982.76	3609.26
Europe	970.99	1034.19	1239.76	1319.72	1244.7	1334.19
Middle East and North Africa	677.26	971.46	785.24	1296.36	855.58	1394.12
SubSaharan Africa	261.53	322.72	329.62	429.65	334.88	442.28
Western Hemishere	863.87	960.83	1051.55	1188.9	1102.26	1214.74

 Source-DOT-IMF