Country Economic Memorandum for Sao Tome and Principe - Background Note 1 : Economic Growth and Volatility in São Tomé and Príncipe

The purpose of this background note is to give an overview of the literature on output volatility and economic growth, assess output volatility and its impact in São Tomé and Príncipe (STP). This note is organized in four sections, besides this int...

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Main Authors: Barroso, Rafael, You, Chenli
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/142041562906624878/Country-Economic-Memorandum-Background-Note-1-Economic-Growth-and-Volatility-in-Sao-Tome-and-Príncipe
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32137
id okr-10986-32137
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-321372021-05-25T09:26:17Z Country Economic Memorandum for Sao Tome and Principe - Background Note 1 : Economic Growth and Volatility in São Tomé and Príncipe Barroso, Rafael You, Chenli OUTPUT VOLATILITY ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC VOLATILITY The purpose of this background note is to give an overview of the literature on output volatility and economic growth, assess output volatility and its impact in São Tomé and Príncipe (STP). This note is organized in four sections, besides this introductory part. The second section reviews the literature on the impact of output volatility on economic growth. The third section discusses different measures of volatility, calculating volatility for STP across different periods, and compares them to peer countries. The last section offers some policy recommendations. Output volatility and its relationship with growth have been a hot topic in economic research literature for a long time. There is significant controversy about how economic volatility1 affects economic growth. Although the link between economic growth and volatility is theoretically ambiguous, a negative impact of economic volatility on output growth dominates the empirical literature. This negative relationship also holds with newer and better datasets, advanced econometrics methodologies, and for specific country groups. There are three mains messages in this note. The first one is that volatility affects growth as supported by the literature review and the econometric estimations carried out in this note. The second one is that STP is a volatile country, although volatility of GDP growth and inflation has declined over time and are in line with peers. On the other hand, STP still faces higher volatility on current account balances and net lending and borrowing than its peers. The third message is that, on average, a fifty percent increase in volatility translates into a 25 percent decrease in GDP per capita growth rates. Finally, policy measures aimed at diversifying exports in terms of goods and markets, reduce the reliance on external finance and fiscal rules can help cushion the volatility and reduce its impact. 2019-07-29T20:25:39Z 2019-07-29T20:25:39Z 2019-06-26 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/142041562906624878/Country-Economic-Memorandum-Background-Note-1-Economic-Growth-and-Volatility-in-Sao-Tome-and-Príncipe http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32137 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work :: Country Economic Memorandum Economic & Sector Work Africa Sao Tome and Principe
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic OUTPUT VOLATILITY
ECONOMIC GROWTH
ECONOMIC VOLATILITY
spellingShingle OUTPUT VOLATILITY
ECONOMIC GROWTH
ECONOMIC VOLATILITY
Barroso, Rafael
You, Chenli
Country Economic Memorandum for Sao Tome and Principe - Background Note 1 : Economic Growth and Volatility in São Tomé and Príncipe
geographic_facet Africa
Sao Tome and Principe
description The purpose of this background note is to give an overview of the literature on output volatility and economic growth, assess output volatility and its impact in São Tomé and Príncipe (STP). This note is organized in four sections, besides this introductory part. The second section reviews the literature on the impact of output volatility on economic growth. The third section discusses different measures of volatility, calculating volatility for STP across different periods, and compares them to peer countries. The last section offers some policy recommendations. Output volatility and its relationship with growth have been a hot topic in economic research literature for a long time. There is significant controversy about how economic volatility1 affects economic growth. Although the link between economic growth and volatility is theoretically ambiguous, a negative impact of economic volatility on output growth dominates the empirical literature. This negative relationship also holds with newer and better datasets, advanced econometrics methodologies, and for specific country groups. There are three mains messages in this note. The first one is that volatility affects growth as supported by the literature review and the econometric estimations carried out in this note. The second one is that STP is a volatile country, although volatility of GDP growth and inflation has declined over time and are in line with peers. On the other hand, STP still faces higher volatility on current account balances and net lending and borrowing than its peers. The third message is that, on average, a fifty percent increase in volatility translates into a 25 percent decrease in GDP per capita growth rates. Finally, policy measures aimed at diversifying exports in terms of goods and markets, reduce the reliance on external finance and fiscal rules can help cushion the volatility and reduce its impact.
format Report
author Barroso, Rafael
You, Chenli
author_facet Barroso, Rafael
You, Chenli
author_sort Barroso, Rafael
title Country Economic Memorandum for Sao Tome and Principe - Background Note 1 : Economic Growth and Volatility in São Tomé and Príncipe
title_short Country Economic Memorandum for Sao Tome and Principe - Background Note 1 : Economic Growth and Volatility in São Tomé and Príncipe
title_full Country Economic Memorandum for Sao Tome and Principe - Background Note 1 : Economic Growth and Volatility in São Tomé and Príncipe
title_fullStr Country Economic Memorandum for Sao Tome and Principe - Background Note 1 : Economic Growth and Volatility in São Tomé and Príncipe
title_full_unstemmed Country Economic Memorandum for Sao Tome and Principe - Background Note 1 : Economic Growth and Volatility in São Tomé and Príncipe
title_sort country economic memorandum for sao tome and principe - background note 1 : economic growth and volatility in são tomé and príncipe
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2019
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/142041562906624878/Country-Economic-Memorandum-Background-Note-1-Economic-Growth-and-Volatility-in-Sao-Tome-and-Príncipe
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32137
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