The impact of Chinese competition on Africa’s manufacturing

In this paper, the competition impact (the volumes of imports of manufactured goods by African countries and their relative prices captured by real exchange rates) that China exerts on Africa’s manufacturing added value is empirically analyzed. Using panel data on 44 African countries covering the period 2000 to 2013, we find that the imports of manufactured goods from China by African countries exert a negative effect on their manufacturing and that a moderate real appreciation of their currencies relative to the renminbi has a positive effect, although it also increases their imports from China and raises the cost of labor. The positive effect of the real appreciation is probably due to the reduced cost of imports. However, as traditional theory predicts, a big real appreciation exerts a negative effect on Africa’s manufacturing.Revised version : December 2016Keywords: manufacturing, China, Africa, real exchange rates