Africa's economic performance improving.

Africa's economic performance improved marginally in 1989, but was still not sufficient to reverse the persistent decline in living standards which has made the 1980s a "lost decade for the continent", according to the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

In 1989, Africa's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 2.9 per cent, compared with 2.4 per cent in 1988. But with population rising faster, average incomes fell by 0.3 per cent-little better than the minus 0.7 per cent fall in 1988.

ECA Executive-Secretary Adebayo Adedejl said in Addis Ababa on 15 january that 1989 would be most remembered as the closing year of Africa's lost decade of development opportunities. The 1980s had witnessed a rapid deterioration in social welfare, as well as disintegration of productive and infrastructural facilities. Ten years ago, the GDP per capita stood at $854; today, it is $565, he said.

Mr. Adedeji said that 1990 must be seen "as the year of challenge and opportunity". If the 1990s were not to become another lost decade, African Governments must adopt new economic strategies that integrate immediate adjustment measures with long-term development goals.

Towards that end, the African Alternative Framework to Structural Adjustment Programmes for Socio-Economic Recovery and Development, adopted by African Governments in 1989, provides a "launching pad into the next decade and beyond".

That must be complemented by action in the international arena, Mr. Adedeji stated. "Without urgent and early resolution of the problems of commodity prices, debt overhang and resource flows, the prospects for growth in 1990, as in the rest of the decade, will remain as bleak as ever." The ECA estimates that Africa's GDP will grow by some 3 per cent in 1990still below the rate of population increase. However, it feels that a significantly more favourable external environment could lead to faster growth.