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Global financial crisis could affect Africa, observes AfDB

Global financial crisis could affect Africa, observes AfDB
Written by Kabanda Chulu
Thursday, November 13, 2008 6:03:36 PM

THE African Development Bank (AfDB) has observed that Africa needs to position itself onthe international financial scene through its response and regulatory measures.

In a statement ahead of today’s high level forum for African Ministers of Finance and Central Banks Governors being held in Tunisia, aimed at discussing the global financial crisis and its potential impact on African economies, the AfDB stated that there is need to mobilise Africans with a view to seeking an answer to the global financial crisis.

“The African continent must also be present in the new architecture that is emerging on the international scene. It is in this context and on the initiative of the AfDB, the African Union and the Economic Commission for Africa that this meeting must take place to seek ways of resolving these issues,” it stated.

And AfDB president Donald Kaberuka expressed concern that Africa could still be seriously affected by the global financial crisis if it records a decline in exports resulting from a downward spiral in world economic growth. Kaberuka reiterated that the African continent has so far been spared by the crisis.

“We are still not safe because the continent can be seriously affected by a downward spiral in global economic growth and a decline in its exports,” he stated.

He warned that budgetary constraints resulting from emergency measures adopted by developed countries to protect their economies would result in reductions in Overseas Development Assistance (ODA).

“The economic slowdown in developed countries can also result in lay-offs and a hardening of policies on foreign migration that can lead to a drastic reductions in monetary transfers by African workers in the developed world,” stated Kaberuka

The AfDB, together with the African Union (AU) and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), are today hosting a high-level forum for African Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors on the global financial crisis in Tunis, Tunisia.

The summit’s objective is to help find a solution to the crisis. Policy makers would discuss the impact of the crisis on the continent and are expected to propose possible solutions to it, considering that it affects the whole continent.

Labels: AfDB, ECA, FINANCIAL CRISIS, RECESSION

posted by MrK @ 6:05 PM