Having overtaken the US as Africa's largest trading partner China continues to deepen its ties with the region. Here is a snapshot of the story so far.

1. Sino-African Trade
In 2000 Sino-Africa trade was worth around $11 billion, by 2013 that
figure had reached $210 billion. In 2009 China overtook the US as Africa’s
largest trading partner.

2. Exports and imports
Mineral products accounted for around four-fifths of total African exports to
China in 2010, with metals accounting for a further 10%. While China is able to
access much needed resources, it is also bringing high value add goods such as
machinery, textiles and transportation equipment into the region.

3. The growth dividend
Deepening economic ties have allowed African GDP to grow at an average
rate of over 4.5% a year since 2000, compared to an average of around 2%
a year in the 1990s.
1990-2000 2000-2012

4. Building Africa’s future
In 2012 alone, Chinese companies completed construction projects worth
$40.8 billion in Africa – an increase of 45% from 2009 levels. Projects include
the new $200m African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa and a $10bn
port, special economic zone and railway network in Tanzania to be finished in
2017.

5. Fears of a slowdown
While growth has been good, slowing growth in China has become a cause for
concern. The country grew 7.4% in the three months to the end of March
compared to the same period last year – its slowest rate in 18 months. The fear
now is that this deceleration might trickle through to its trading partners.

6. China Rebalancing?
Reforms announced during the Third Plenum of the 18th Central Committee of
the Chinese Communist Party last November could begin the process of shifting
the country’s economy towards domestic demand – though there are few signs of
this yet…

7. Grounds for optimism
Despite the caution, economic cooperation between some of the
world’s fastest growing economies has been one of the most
promising developments of recent years. Their dynamism has
helped offset some of the damage wrought by the financial crisis
and the Great Recession that followed it.
Africa continues to grow at a significantly faster rate than
developed economies. After growing by 4.6% last year Capital
Economics forecasts sub-Saharan Africa could see growth of
around 5% in 2014, below the average of recent years but still
one of the fastest growing regions in the world.
With a lot of room for African countries to continue closing the
gap in per capita incomes with their developed market peers this
could well be a story that defines the future as well as the recent
past.