Figure 13 provides a view of competitiveness improvements at two points in time: 2006 and 2014. To complement this analysis, Appendix D shows the evolution in performance of all 24 African economies in the constant sample grouped into fragile, middle-and low-income, and oil-exporting economies.⁴⁷

Africa’s middle-income and oil-exporting economies exhibit a mixed picture when it comes to improvements in competitiveness compared to nine years ago. Mauritius and Zambia register the largest improvements in competitiveness, but South Africa, Egypt, and Tunisia show declines, the latter two following the events of the Arab Spring. The data suggest that the region’s current best-performing economy, Mauritius (at 39th, replacing South Africa two years ago), has made impressive strides toward improved competitiveness on the back of the wide-ranging structural reforms that began in 2006. This improvement has been particularly visible in its creation of an enabling environment in its financial, goods, and labor markets. Similarly, Zambia has made the most progress in the region, particularly upgrading the quality of its institutions and improving goods market efficiencies, now ranked 96th.

These countries stand in contrast to the performance of South Africa, which has been experiencing a gradual but steady decline in its competitiveness since 2006 and ranks 56th in this year’s Report, down from 35th in 2006. The country continues to benefit from strong private institutions, such as auditing and reporting standards, good transport infrastructure (by regional standards), and efficient goods and financial markets as well as its relatively innovative companies. However, its Achilles’ heel remains opaque public institutions, poor health and education, and an extremely rigid labor market. Other middle-income economies, such as Botswana and Namibia, have maintained a relatively stable performance across the years. Both benefit from comparatively good institutions but critically neglect their human resource base, both in terms of health and education. Of the North African middle-income group, Egypt and Tunisia have not succeeded in putting their economies on a more stable footing since the Arab Spring, although the fact that these economies are slowly stabilizing and starting to focus on economic reforms holds promise for the future. Conversely, we see that Morocco (72nd)—the most competitive economy in North Africa—has been registering a gradual upward trend, reflecting efforts made over the years to develop its business environment. Oil-exporting economies demonstrate a mixed performance over the past nine years: Cameroon has seen slight improvements because its public institutions are developing, although this is reflected in its score in this pillar but not in the rankings, as other countries have been doing relatively better. At the same time, countries such as Chad and Nigeria are stagnating in their overall performance of competitiveness.

The majority of fragile and low-income economies register slight improvements. On the upside, we see improvement in competitiveness, albeit from a very low base, in the majority of fragile economies. This progress is most notable in Burundi: although ranked a low 139th, the country has shown a steady improvement since the 2013 Report. Zimbabwe likewise has been showing gradual improvement since its nadir in performance in 2009. In contrast, Madagascar—another fragile economy in our sample—has been stagnating, while Mauritania has declined to 141st place. When it comes to low-income economies, Figure 13 suggests a small but positive development in six out of seven economies in our 2006 constant sample. Among these, Ethiopia and Kenya register the largest improvements while only Burkina Faso has seen a slight decline in competitiveness.