IMF warns of global "Great Recession", Africa to be hit hard.

[EarlyBird]

By Lesley Wroughton and George Obulutsa

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday that the world economy will likely contract this year in a "Great Recession" and African leaders said the financial crisis could undo hard-won social-economic gains.

"The IMF expects global growth to slow below zero this year, the worst performance in most of our lifetimes," IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn told African political and financial leaders in the Tanzanian capital.

"Continued deleveraging by world financial institutions, combined with a collapse in consumer and business confidence is depressing domestic demand across the globe, while world trade is falling at an alarming rate and commodity prices have tumbled," Strauss-Kahn added.

As advanced countries focus on problems in their own economies, Strauss-Kahn called on the international community not to forget Africa, where regional growth is expected to slow sharply to 3 percent this year, half the rate of the past five years.

That forecast may "even be too optimistic", he said.

"Even though the crisis has been slow in reaching Africa's shores, we all know it is coming and its impact will be severe," he said. "We must ensure that the voices of the poor are heard. We must ensure that Africa is not left out," he added.

The IMF chief warned that millions of people in Africa will be thrown back into poverty by the crisis, while fragile political systems will be tested.

"This is not only about protecting economic growth and household incomes - it is also about containing the threat of civil unrest, perhaps even war. It is about people and their futures," he added.

He said the combined impact of economic and financial shocks on Africa's growth will be severe. Financial flows are becoming more scarce, trade financing even scarcer and more expensive and foreign investment in Africa's stock and bond markets has fallen, he added.

Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete said the crisis posed the biggest threat to the region in recent history.

"So far, Africa's voice on this unnerving situation has been muted as witnessed in different global initiatives and processes, which have emerged to respond to the crisis," he told the 300 delegates at the conference.

He said a meeting of the Group of 20 leaders in London on April 2 was an opportunity to send a clear message to the world on Africa's concerns about the crisis.

IMF warns of global Great Recession | U.S. | Reuters

That's a bit rich coming from the lowlife criminal scumbags at the IMF. The World Bank and the IMF forced African countries to open their economies to Western interests.Multinational corporations have profited massively while African and other "third world" countries have gone down the tubes even further. Huge levels of poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, starvation, illiteracy and general economic decline. For twenty years or more the World Bank and the IMF have forced "developing countries" to accept conditions and "structural adjustment programs" etc that benefit corporations massively and open the doors for them to loot, privatise and profiteer, Africans the inhabitants of the rest of the "third world" were hung out to dry, the IMF and World Bank doesn't give a s*it about them, never did. When will people see the criminal scumbags at the IMF and World Bank for what they are?. They might be coming here soon enough.

[mmrebel]

i think the hard reality of our current woes is the people who had very Little are going to be hit the hardest , have a friend who works with one of those people that accost you in the street on behalf of goal or trocaire ,and they have pulled them off the streets because there is no money to be had doing that anymore

[Odyessus]

i think the hard reality of our current woes is the people who had very Little are going to be hit the hardest , have a friend who works with one of those people that accost you in the street on behalf of goal or trocaire ,and they have pulled them off the streets because there is no money to be had doing that anymore

First bit of good news I've heard since the recession hit.

[mmrebel]

First bit of good news I've heard since the recession hit.

ya those people were quite scary you would see the bright coloured jacket and try not to make eye contact ,mumble incoherently at them and end up feeling guilty for not being more polite.

[Dios]

The World Bank and the IMF forced African countries to open their economies to Western interests.

To be honest theres little enough involvement from the West in most of Africa these days. The Chinese on the other hand are up to their necks in resource removal to fuel their enormous industrial machine.

[Leftfemme22]

To be honest theres little enough involvement from the West in most of Africa these days..

Us investment in Africa had been rising sharply since 2005. The IMF has already done the damage with many economies in Africa still struggling to pay off the loans.

The Chinese on the other hand are up to their necks in resource removal to fuel their enormous industrial machine.

The council of Foreign Relations consider Chinese investment as being conducted under a policy of noninterference with domestic affairs or strictly business. A policy warmly welcomed the African countries themselves.

It’s why China got its knuckles rapped over the Sudan crisis.

The IMF do not loan/invest under such conditions and they did force African countries to open their economies to Western interests.

[Dios]

Us investment in Africa had been rising sharply since 2005.

Which still amounts to a miniscule amount of US foreign aid as a whole (and the majority of that increase consists of emergency food aid, and the remainder AIDs initiatives and aid to two countries), especially if you consider military sales as "foreign aid", and less than the 0.7% of GNI pledged by Germany and Italy and the likes. In real dollar terms it has only increased by some 60% or so, not the much mooted "tripling" Bush was proclaiming, and not so much investment either.

The council of Foreign Relations consider Chinese investment as being conducted under a policy of noninterference with domestic affairs or strictly business. A policy warmly welcomed the African countries themselves.

A policy warmly welcomed by African governments, you mean, who are only too delighted to have access to Chinese weapons and funding in exchange for resources they are unable as yet to exploit themselves. Is it so benign that the Chinese have no concerns who they hand money over to, as long as they get what they want? And its not short term contracts they sign either. The native populations on the other hand have a less sunny attitude towards them. Even the governments themselves are starting to have second thoughts. Theres not much of a line between amoral and immoral on that scale.

The IMF do not loan/invest under such conditions and they did force African countries to open their economies to Western interests.

Eh I agree that the IMF are nothing but corporate mercenaries, but the picture is never as black and white as it initially appears.