Africa’s food security requires accurate trade statistics

Mark Twain once warned, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Yet statistics are a fundamental tool for economic and decision-making by governments, international institutions, and even the private sector. International trade statistics play a particularly important rol...

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Autores principales: Bouët, Antoine, Cissé, Brahima, Traoré, Fousseini
Formato: Opinion Piece
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142915
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author Bouët, Antoine
Cissé, Brahima
Traoré, Fousseini
author_browse Bouët, Antoine
Cissé, Brahima
Traoré, Fousseini
author_facet Bouët, Antoine
Cissé, Brahima
Traoré, Fousseini
author_sort Bouët, Antoine
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Mark Twain once warned, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Yet statistics are a fundamental tool for economic and decision-making by governments, international institutions, and even the private sector. International trade statistics play a particularly important role. They allow us to determine a country's current account balance — that is, whether a country is living above or below its means — which is crucial information for macroeconomic policy. Detailed information on trade flows can be used to identify not only a country’s largest trading partners, but also the sectors in which it has a comparative advantage or disadvantage. This makes it possible to design structural actions to improve the competitiveness of certain sectors or trade relations with certain countries. These same statistics also provide valuable information for the private sector, as they help in identifying both attractive sectors for investment and which countries offer promising markets or are emerging as serious competitors.
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spelling CGSpace1429152024-10-25T07:55:35Z Africa’s food security requires accurate trade statistics Bouët, Antoine Cissé, Brahima Traoré, Fousseini trade food security international trade statistics Mark Twain once warned, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Yet statistics are a fundamental tool for economic and decision-making by governments, international institutions, and even the private sector. International trade statistics play a particularly important role. They allow us to determine a country's current account balance — that is, whether a country is living above or below its means — which is crucial information for macroeconomic policy. Detailed information on trade flows can be used to identify not only a country’s largest trading partners, but also the sectors in which it has a comparative advantage or disadvantage. This makes it possible to design structural actions to improve the competitiveness of certain sectors or trade relations with certain countries. These same statistics also provide valuable information for the private sector, as they help in identifying both attractive sectors for investment and which countries offer promising markets or are emerging as serious competitors. 2021-02-01 2024-05-22T12:11:18Z 2024-05-22T12:11:18Z Opinion Piece https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142915 en https://www.telos-eu.com/fr/securite-alimentaire-en-afrique-les-statistiques-d.html Open Access Bouët, Antoine; Cisse, Brahima; and Traoré, Fousseini. 2021. Africa’s food security requires accurate trade statistics. Telos. First available online on February 24, 2021. https://www.telos-eu.com/en/africas-food-security-requires-accurate-trade-stat.html
spellingShingle trade
food security
international trade
statistics
Bouët, Antoine
Cissé, Brahima
Traoré, Fousseini
Africa’s food security requires accurate trade statistics
title Africa’s food security requires accurate trade statistics
title_full Africa’s food security requires accurate trade statistics
title_fullStr Africa’s food security requires accurate trade statistics
title_full_unstemmed Africa’s food security requires accurate trade statistics
title_short Africa’s food security requires accurate trade statistics
title_sort africa s food security requires accurate trade statistics
topic trade
food security
international trade
statistics
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142915
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