African economies’ prospects for long-term, sustainable growth are under threat from weakness in the core conditions necessary for competitive and productive economies, despite outwardly healthy-looking growth rates in many parts of the region, according to the African Competitiveness Report, released on June 4 in Cape Town. The biennial report, themed “Transforming Africa’s Economies”, is jointly produced by the African Development Bank, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Bank and the World Economic Forum, and contains the detailed competitiveness profiles of 40 African economies, and comprehensive summaries of the drivers of competitiveness in each. These profiles are used by policy-makers, business strategists and other key stakeholders with an interest in the region. This year’s report combines detailed data from the Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) with studies on three key areas of economic activity; agricultural productivity, services sector growth and global and regional value chains. The data points to low and stagnating productivity across all sectors: agriculture, manufacturing and services, partly as a result of ongoing weakness in the basic drivers of competitiveness, such as institutions, infrastructure, health and education. This shortfall masks a better performance in other areas of the economy; specifically, better functioning of labour and goods markets.