Journal of the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies Núm. 12 / 2018 Revista del Instituto Español de Estudios Estratégicos n.º 12 - Año: 2018 - Págs.: 325 a 366 336 The absence of any powerful industry and the deficient structure in terms of econo-mic, agricultural and livestock activities condemns these regions to an economy based on family and subsistence farming with limited added value, or to exporting of raw materials. The damage caused to their agriculture as a result of western protectionism and the competition of Asian textiles (Mali is a major cotton producer), together with frequent droughts, aggravated by the growing impact of climate change, has led to mass migration towards cities. The recent drop in the price of oil has caused a plunge in the GDP of Chad (-7%) and Nigeria (-1.6%). Likewise, foreign investments are conditioned by the political and social instability of the countries. As a result, GDP growth has not been sufficient to guarantee a minimum development enabling these countries to pull out of the extreme poverty they find themselves immersed in, and still less to support the population at the current birth rates. Graph 12. Annual variation of the GDP. Author’s own work with data obtained from the World Bank’s website corres-ponding to 2016. Available on https://datos.bancomundial.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?view=charten. Except Eritrea and Niger, data as of 2015 on the UN website. Available on http://data.un.org/en/index.html. Date of reference 30/03/18. The following table shows the main data regarding foreign trade of the G5 Sahel countries, extracted from the 2017 report of the World Trade Organisation. The report underlines the pivotal role of the EU, China, South Africa and Switzerland. For the purposes of this study, the only countries with any significant values are Benin, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal. The scant trade between these six countries is included under the heading “others”, except Niger, which exports 5.6% of its total to Mali. The heading “others” represents values above a quarter of the total exchange, but below 5% on an individual level.
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