Africa-Press – Lesotho. The World Bank reported Tuesday that “frontier market” economies, largely composed of middle-income diversities, have largely failed to realize their potential in recent years, with per capita investment in the 2020s being less than half of what it was in the 2010s.
“Yet the experience of the top performers among frontier markets reveals lessons for the 56 economies currently in the cluster,” the bank said in a statement.
The statement noted that these economies have made little progress in attracting investment since 2000, and that the rate of per capita investment growth has gradually slowed over the last 25 years, falling to just 2% in the 2020s.
The bank noted that frontier market economies currently account for only 3.1% of global capital inflows and less than 5% of global economic output.
The statement noted that more than a third of frontier market economies are located in Sub-Saharan Africa, and that many of these economies are rich in minerals essential for new technologies related to renewable energy, telecommunications, and consumer electronics.
“Excluding a handful of economies that have become investment grade over the past 25 years, frontier markets may well be the biggest disappointment in economic development,” World Bank chief economist Indermit Gill said.
