Africa: The IMF Just Made the Case for Its Own Irrelevance

[ad_1] Washington DC — On Friday the 11th, the IMF announced policy changes that will save developing countries $1.2 billion per year. Despite the self-congratulations and fanfare, these reforms are only a tiny fraction of what campaigners had been asking for -- and an even smaller share of what the Global South needs. This month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had an opportunity to end one of its most reviled policies and lift billions of dollars of debt off the […]

October 23, 2024 2

Africa

Africa: Why Pay Tax? African Study Finds Trust in Government Is Key

[ad_1] Taxes are important. They're a primary way in which governments fund essential services like healthcare, education, infrastructure and social protection programmes. They are vital to the economic development of countries. In sub-Saharan African countries, the need for public services is great and fiscal resources are often scarce. Getting the public to pay their taxes is essential. However, a variety of structural and governance challenges have made it difficult to effectively mobilise revenue. Recent tax protests in Kenya illustrate the […]

October 1, 2024

Africa

Africa: China’s Lending to Africa Increased in 2023, Study Shows

[ad_1] Johannesburg — Chinese lending to Africa rose for the first time in years in 2023, new research by Boston University's Global Development Policy Center showed Thursday. But the $4.61 billion loaned last year is still far less than China's commitments to the continent pre-pandemic. In the heady early days of Chinese President Xi Jinping's global infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, China's loans to Africa surpassed […]

August 30, 2024

Africa

Africa: The South Must Unite to End Debt and Shape a New Economic Order

[ad_1] The inequities of the global financial system have changed little for decades. What's new, with the climate crisis, is the urgency of fixing them. On 4 February 1975, Senegal's then President Leopold Senghor declared to a meeting of the non-aligned states: "We in the third world have to use our natural resources to break the traditional patterns of world trade...This conference must above all define the objectives of the new economic order and adopt methods of realising these objectives." […]

February 15, 2024

Africa

Africa: Onerous Debt Making Poorest Poorer

[ad_1] Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — Contractionary economic trends since 2008 and 'geopolitical' conflicts subverting international cooperation have worsened world conditions, especially in the poorest countries, mainly in Africa, leaving their poor worse off. Conditions and prospects are so bad that two well-known globalisation cheerleaders have appealed to rich nations for urgent action. Former IMF Deputy Managing Director and World Bank Senior Vice-President, Professor Anne Krueger and influential Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf warn ominously of the dire consequences of inaction. […]

February 2, 2024 1

Africa

African Countries Are Struggling With High Debt, Demands to Spend More and Collapsing Currencies – the Policy Fixes That Could Help

[ad_1] Highly indebted African countries are facing stark trade-offs between servicing expensive debt, supporting high and growing development needs, and stabilising domestic currencies. Government debt has risen in at least 40 African countries over the past decade. As a result, some are experiencing a bad combination of high debt, elevated development spending needs amid budget shortfalls, and unfavourable exchange rate pressures. These issues have become more pressing since 2022, when persistently high inflation prompted major central banks around the world […]

February 1, 2024

Africa

Africa: World Bank Group Statement On Debt Restructuring Agreement for Ghana

[ad_1] Washington — The World Bank Group today released the following statement: The World Bank Group welcomes the agreement in principle on the key parameters of the proposed debt restructuring for Ghana reached by the Official Creditors' Committee under the G20 Common Framework. This agreement, which is consistent with the Joint WB-IMF Debt Sustainability Framework, represents a critical milestone toward restoring debt sustainability in this country. "This agreement will help unlock financial support by international financial institutions, including a US$300 […]

January 19, 2024