The Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) said this Saturday that Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau are among the ten poorest countries in Africa, drawing attention to the degradation of the continent’s economy.
“546 million people live in poverty, which is 74% more than in 1990,” Hanan Morsi said at the end of the 55th African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development Conference, which took place this week in Addis Ababa. , and in which he stated that Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau were on the list of ten countries where 60 to 82% of the population is poor, without giving further details.
“Global shocks are rippling through the poorest in Africa through inflation, which was 12.3% in 2022, much higher than the 6.7% recorded globally,” the economist added.
UNECA estimates that African families spend up to 40% of their family income on food, so rising food prices are having “a bigger impact in Africa, especially on the poorest,” he said.
African countries’ heavy reliance on imports has made the continent vulnerable to external shocks, the ministers stressed, according to the conference’s final communiqué stating that 39 of the region’s 54 countries are net food importers and that, in 2021, the continent exported just 5 refined oil .7 billion US dollars (5.3 billion euros) and imported 44 billion US dollars (almost 41 billion euros), despite the fact that it produced more than it consumed.
The difficulties resulting from the food and energy crises are also exacerbated by the lack of fiscal space to implement measures that could accelerate the recovery of the continent’s economy, which is expected to grow at less than 4% this year, below population growth.
“Climbing out of low income and wealth is made even more difficult by climate change-related issues, as recently seen with floods in Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique,” the statement said, also deploring the public debt crisis. this year. A Portuguese-speaking country that “could undermine all the growth of the last 23 years”.
Experts and ministers have warned that African countries continue to face falling incomes, rising public debt and shrinking fiscal space, with the debt ratio rising from 57.1% in 2019 to 64.5% last year.
The theme of the African Ministerial Conference was “Accelerating Africa’s recovery and transformation to reduce inequalities and vulnerabilities”.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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