According to recent reports, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has indicated that the Tanzania economy, along with eight other economies in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, has begun to experience impressive expansion and development with the help of the private sector.
In a recent report by the Guardian, the Senior Advisor in the African Department of the IMF, David Nellor, said that the pattern of economic development in these eight African countries was similar to the large economic growth and development that was experienced in the Eastern Asian markets during the 1980’s
“The same crucial developments that presaged the arrival of institutional financial investors in emerging markets in the 1980’s are taking place in parts of sub-Saharan Africa today,” said Mr. Nellor, “growth is taking off, the private sector is the key driver of that growth, and financial markets are opening up.”
The term ‘emerging markets’ was first used in the 1980’s in reference to the developing countries whose stock markets had begun to display features similar to those in industrialized countries.
According to Mr. Nellor, unlike these original developing countries where investors were able to access the emerging economies through equity markets and occasionally through foreign currency debt issues, the new emerging markets are faced with a more complicated and integrated global environment.
Mr. Nellor went on to explain to the Guardian that in addition to the investments that are currently available to investors, there is also a wide variety of other financial activities such as foreign exchange market instruments and domestic bonds to be considered.
The financial markets in the African emerging markets are increasingly being classified by the financial technology that is being transferred to these markets almost immediately after is has been developed in the more mature markets.
Currently, many institutional investors are coming into the markets in Africa through the use of a range of tools, including equity and local currency fixed income, in addition to the use of physical and end-result instruments.
However, with this in mind, it is also important to note that limits on the transfer of technology from other emerging markets into the developing markets in Africa can be considered to be limited in terms of the depth of the market and by the infrastructure and regulatory system of the market.
Based on the definition of emerging markets, which describes the social of business activities of a nation that is in the process of experiencing fast-paced growth and industrialization, the IMF has indicated that the eight sub-Saharan countries, which account for a combined 40 percent of the population of the region, have met the criteria to be labeled an emerging market.
