Economic Growth, Public and Private Consumption in Cameroon: A Multivariate Analysis

Abstract

The nature of the link between economic growth, public and private consumption in theoretical and empirical research is not well known in Cameroon. The objective of this study is to examine the nature of the relationship between economic growth, public and private consumption in Cameroon from 1980 to 2015. In order to achieve our goal, the data from the CENUCED were collected and tested in the autoregressive vector model (VAR). The delay selection statistic for VAR allowed us to have the following causality results: in Cameroon, there is a unidirectional relationship between economic growth towards public consumption and economic growth towards private consumption. Meanwhile, there is no causal link between public and private consumption, from public and private consumption to economic growth. Thus, the recommendation is that the Cameroonian government should create an incentive framework conducive to the improvement of public and private consumption to stimulate investment and economic growth.