Madagascar: The Incredible Economic Disaster
We found this article written by Yves Bourdillon to have extremely valuable insight to the economy of Madagascar. The article is in French so we translated it and pasted it here so others can read. Here is the link to the actual article in case you want to watch the video that is in it! https://www.lesechos.fr/monde/afrique-moyen-orient/0301388246691-madagascar-linvraisemblable-desastre-economique-2164220.php
The big African island is the only country in the world where the standard of living has declined since 1960. The presidential election next November is unlikely to change the situation.
An enigmatic disaster. Madagascar, where a presidential election will be held on November 24, is the only country in the world where per capita income has declined in constant dollars (and 30%, moreover) since 1960, the year of its independence. It does not exceed $400 today, five places from the poorest country in the world. Three-quarters of its 25 million people live below the poverty line. Another index of underdevelopment, Madagascar is experiencing recurring episodes ... of plague, disease eradicated in the rest of the world for half a century.
Wasted Assets
A mind-boggling mess when you know that the lands of the fourth island of the planet are an "agronomist's dream", in the words of an expert. Its beaches and landscapes are also attractive to tourists, and its reserves of nickel, cobalt or gold mining companies. Another advantage, Madagascar is not torn by inter-ethnic tensions, sources of underdevelopment elsewhere. And knew little violence likely to frighten investors until recently - a campaign "Aok'Zay" (that's enough) was launched in reaction to the rise of burglaries and assaults on social networks ... which are connected a tiny minority of Malagasy.
The Ghost of Political Crises
Madagascar is also experiencing encouraging growth episodes, (+ 5% recorded last year), a growth financed by large public investments. The International Monetary Fund, which chaired in 2016 the implementation of a program of reforms backed by an Extended Credit Facility (ECF), expects + 5.3% this year, if no cyclone comes to ravage the plantations of vanilla, like that of a year ago, which had caused the multiplication of the price by ten (600 euros per kilo).
Madagascar, which accounts for 80% of world production, is very dependent on the export of this spice, the most expensive in the world behind saffron. The head of the state of Madagascar, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, also boasts of having obtained a year ago $ 6.4 billion pledges from international donors. But for decades, episodes of growth have been regularly canceled by a political crisis, at the rate of about one every six years since 1991. The last, in 2009, saw the country ostracized by the international community. A fatality that has nothing fortuitous, according to researchers at the Center for Development Institutions and Globalization (DIAL) Mireille Razafindrakoto, François Roubaud and Jean-Michel Wachsberger, authors of the book "The enigma and paradox" published recently.
Rapine
They believe that in an economy of "rapine", with rents easy to take on natural resources or external aid, any economic take-off generates jealousies within the clans of a "hyper-elite of ten thousand people" few interested in simply "making the cake grow and spread".
Jealousies regularly leading to attempts to overthrow power. According to them, the weakness of intermediary bodies and institutions (the country is ranked 155 out of 180 countries in terms of perception of corruption) and the impoverishment of the middle class do not help to get out of this vicious circle. What to doubt a substantial improvement in the situation after the November election.