Another day in Africa, although not apparently a bad one. Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa was a respectable 5.4 per cent last year, according to the International Monetary Fund. This year the region is expected to grow by 1.5 per cent, and almost 4 per cent in 2010. That is not a Chinese rate of expansion, but it beats the developed world. Yet investors are unconvinced and African stock markets are among the world’s worst performing this year. Why is Africa the continent the rally has left behind?

It is not as though government finances or banks are in bad shape. External debt is also at historic lows. Investors’ appetite for risk seems unbounded elsewhere. Peru’s stock market has more than doubled in dollar terms this year; Jakarta’s has risen by 66 per cent. By contrast, Botswanan, Nigerian and Kenyan equities have fallen by as much as a fifth.