Three African economies show how China’s slowdown is reshaping trade
China’s slowing growth and worsening trade imbalances are reshaping its economic relationship with Africa on three fronts: as a demand market, supplier, and competitor. Exports to Africa have grown faster than to all other regions, but effects are uneven: Angola’s crude exports to China have fallen by half as a share of GDP, the DRC’s clean-energy mineral exports have risen to 25 percent of GDP, and South Africa’s mineral export performance varies by product.
Why it matters: This matters for the theme of China’s slowdown reshaping trade, because African economies face highly varied exposures depending on their export mixes.