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Johannesburg - There are concerns about Africa's ability to reduce poverty, with a country like South Africa, for example, not able to accompany strong GDP growth with commensurate job creation, said the United Nations at the southern African launch of the World Economic Situation and Prospects Report in Johannesburg on Monday.
The UN highlighted that in SA an impressive growth performance in recent years had not translated into rapidly commensurate employment acceleration or visible reductions in unemployment and under-employment rates.
Speaking at the launch, Professor Jan van Heerden from the University of Pretoria, said: "The growth comes more from productivity growth rather than employing more people. The people that are employed are working better."
The UN report highlighted that from 1998 to 2006 only seven of the 52 countries monitored by the Economic Commission for Africa achieved an average real GDP growth of more than 7%, considered by some as the minimum required growth rate to halve extreme poverty in the region by 2015.
"Growth of the majority of the economies in the region has clustered in the range of 3% to 7%. By this measure and at current trends, few countries would be on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals," said the UN report.