While the twin objectives can be made
complementary in the long run, there is an inherent
tension between them in the short run, most
acutely felt in the trade-off between stability and
development. In the past, stabilization objectives
have not been well integrated into long-term
development strategies, allowing short-run issues to
drive the agenda. Most of Africa’s macroeconomic
policies have in fact been assessed against their
stabilization objectives, and while this may be
understandable in a mature economy assumed to
operate not far from a full-employment equilibrium
in normal circumstances,38 it is certainly not suited
for low-income countries with large reserves of
unemployed resources waiting to be used as
productive assets. This focus is wholly inadequate for
accelerating Africa’s structural transformation (see
chapter 2).