Africa-EU: economic indicators, trade and investment - Issue number 98/2009 - Products Statistics in Focus

African GDP growth offset by fast increasing prices

This is the first publication prepared jointly by Eurostat and the African Union (AU) Commission's Statistics Unit in the framework of the promotion of economic governance as foreseen by the Joint Africa-EU Strategy. In recent years, the GDP generated by African countries has progressed at a faster pace than that of the European Union, but it has been offset by a comparatively high increase in consumer prices. Since 2004, the EU-27 trade in goods with Africa has taken a clear upswing, the value of its imports (mainly energy products) always being superior to that of its exports (especially machinery and transport equipment). In 2008, Libya ranked first for EU-27 imports; South Africa was the main destination country for EU-27 exports to Africa. The EU-27 also displays a deficit in trade in services, considerably influenced by tourism to North African destinations.