After one of the closest presidential elections ever, the front-runners are preparing for a run-off vote in less than three weeks’ time
The hard-fought general elections on 7 December sa...
The hard-fought general elections on 7 December sa...
Whoever wins the second round of the presidential election – John Atta Mills or Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo – will have...
After soldiers rampage through Harare, the Reserve Bank Governor delivers cash directly to the barracks
International financial institutions have now decided that Africa – despite its tenuous links to the global banking crisis – will suffer a serious economic downturn. Africa has been growing faster this year than at any time in the past 40 years and has posted GDP growth figures of over 5% for the past five years. Two months ago, the IMF happily predicted that Africa would ride out the storm, achieving the second highest regional growth figures after East Asia. All that has changed, says the World Bank’s latest Global Economic Prospects 2009 report, which forecasts that growth in Africa will dip to 4.6% in 2009. And the United Nations, after reporting that capital flows to Africa would increase despite the global slowdown, is now forecasting less investment in Africa, too. In so doing, the Bank and the UN have shattered more shibboleths about de-coupling and how the international economic system works. The first was that Asian economies would continue to grow, invest and trade regardless of the chaos in the Western banking system: falling trade figures and closing factories in China exposed that fallacy. A lesser shibboleth held that African economies, which are mostly agrarian and remote from the world of derivatives and credit default swaps, would sail on obliviously. Sadly for Africa, this global connectivity means that falling demand in the West has quickly led to lower prices and shrinking markets for its exports, even in Asia’s hyper-economies.
No change we can believe inThe US dollarisation of Zimbabwe’s economy has a caused a crisis over small change. There are plenty of US$100 and $50 n... Crisis? What crisis?The world slump has made nonsense of the budget plans – and slashed expected oil revenues Nkunda wants the whole dealThe government cannot afford another war – and probably could not win it, so it must talk to its nemesis More unga than chungwaA year after the flawed elections, much of the fire has gone out of the once radical opposition Orange Democratic Moveme... Who fixed the election and howThe first of the two commissions on Kenya’s election crisis – both advocated by former United Nations Secretary General ... |
Hunting the killersThe Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence was chaired by Kenya’s Justice Phillip Waki and included Gavin A. ... Boutef, the Life PresidentThe latest constitutional changes abolish presidential term limits and weaken parliament Another third term in AfricaAlgeria’s 12 November constitutional amendment consisted of two main proposals: to remove the limit of two five-year ter... A sheikh returns to the frayAs Islamist militias prepare for a final strike on Mogadishu, another Islamist leader signs a power-sharing deal and tal... Back to AddisEthiopia argues that its withdrawal from Somalia will help the power-sharing talks brokered by the United Nations Specia... |
International financial institutions have now decided that Africa – despite its tenuous links to the global banking crisis – will suffer a serious economic downturn. Africa has been growing faster this year than at any time in the past 40 years and has posted GDP growth figures of over 5% for the past five years. Two months ago, the IMF happily predicted that Africa would ride out the storm, achieving the second highest regional growth figures after East Asia. All that has changed, says the ...
The once media-friendly President has lost patience with Uganda’s fourth estate
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PollIs the rebel General Laurent Nkunda a Rwandan proxy as the Kinshasa government of President Joseph Kabila claims? |