Comparison of Macroeconomic Performance of Selected African Countries: An Econometric Analysis of Economic Growth of the Countries

This paper compares the economic performance of selected African countries including: Ghana, Cameroon, South Africa and Kenya respectively over the last 30 years and it also make an econometric analysis for these countries for the period of 1980-2010 so as to show the relationship between economic variables highlighted in this study and the growth of these countries. The countries were chosen for the sake of comparability only. This study investigates six hypotheses on several macro-economic variables such as investment rate; inflation rate, trade openness, foreign direct investment, government expenditures, government debt and saving rate as it affect the gross domestic product (GDP). The relationship between these variables was tested using multiple regression analysis with ordinary least square method (OLS), alongside with the panel regression analysis.  The study shows that investment, fdi, debt, consumption expenditure have positive relationship with growth, whereas inflation has a negative effect on growth with their respective significance at 1%, 10% and 5% as the case may be. Policies were also drawn from the differences in performance of these countries