Page 12 - Economic transformation

registered GDP growth consistently higher than the population growth rate since 2012.

By 2018, GDP growth in Senegal was estimated at 2.5 times greater than population

growth rates. Guinea-Bissau only started registering GDP growth higher than population

growth since 2015 with GDP growing at twice the rate of population growth annually

between 2015 and 2018.

Figure 8: GDP and population growth rates – Senegal, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau
and Lesotho (2000 to 2017)

Source: IMF 2018 WEO Database and UN Population estimates

Importantly, GDP growth has outstripped population growth, at a minimum,

between the years between 2015 and 2018 in all the four countries. An important

implication of this is that the economy of The Gambia is not growing at a pace that can

accommodate an expansion in national prosperity – either through significant overall

increases in economic productivity and/or declining population growth.

Another broad economic indicator that affects the outcome of economic growth is

inflation which measures the average rate at which prices are changing in the economy.

12