African Economies: How do external events impact the macroeconomic performance in Africa?

For decades, the world was not acknowledging Africa as a fast-growing economy but rather seeing it as the poorest region and the most underdeveloped continent with a multi-angled economic, social, and political emergency. Although, the continent accounts for a third of the planet’s mineral resources by owning 90% of the world’s cobalt and platinum, 98% of its chromium, 70% of its tantalite, 64% of its manganese, 50% of its gold, and one-third of its uranium, 10% of the world’s oil reserves, 9% of natural gas production and producing nearly 70% of the global diamond trade. While the African workforce is estimated to reach two bn by 2040 as the largest in the world. The African dependency on some key exports such as mineral resources, oil, natural gas, etc… is linking the economy to the commodities price and global shocks, such that any oil volatility or market uncertainty combined with any regional instability, weak governance or natural disasters depress the African economy and shrink the macroeconomic performance of rich-resources exporters, consequently, U-shape the growth history and force the sharp fall to last for a longer period. The commodities account for a proportion of exports in close to half of the African countries, lack of diversification, besides the interconnection of overseas markets, have made Africa a permanent follower of the external macroeconomic variables. Therefore, this thesis will aim to analyse the influence of those outlying events on African economies by first determining which economic system African countries are adopting? And then answer the following questions: How do the economic implications of Brexit vary across Africa? How has the Covid-19 pandemic influenced African countries? How is the Ukraine-Russia war affecting African export and import? How would the implementation of industry 4.0 impact the global and regional labour market?