Beyond the Record

ISBN-13: 9783847377740 / Angielski / Miękka / 152 str.

Gregory Mthembu-Salter

Opis

African countries are often exhorted to trade more between themselves, with official statistics indicating disappointingly little economic activity between them. Yet the statistics massively under-capture the complex realities of African cross-border trade. This dissertation offers a new methodology for assessing un-recorded African cross-border trade, and applies it on the border crossing between Cyangugu, Rwanda and Bukavu, DRC. The dissertation provides estimates for trade values and volumes in a range of goods and services, demonstrating that trade on this border is vibrant and mostly unrecorded. There is also a historical summary of trade across the Cyangugu-Bukavu border to provide context. The conclusion argues that intra-African trade is far more substantial then official statistics indicate, and that alternative methodologies, such as the one implemented for this study, are needed to evaluate and understand its workings.

O autorze

Gregory Mthembu-Salter is an author on African political economy, and has also served as a member of the UN Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He has a particular research interest in finding ways to evaluate and understand Africa's real economy, which includes unrecorded trade.