News & Analysis: Economic impact
“COVID-19 is reshaping our world in ways that require a redesign of our systems and changes in how we view our future. It is up to us as Africans to decide if we are to accept mere observer status or be a main player at the table.”
“International credit-rating agencies perennially assign overinflated risks to Africa, irrespective of its improving macroeconomic fundamentals or the global economic environment. These ‘perception premiums’ are one of the region’s biggest development challenges.”
“The world has been dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic as a global health crisis, but it’s time we shift gears and recognise it for the global humanitarian emergency that it is.”
“The amount of the financing was not disclosed, but the IMF and World Bank put Sudan’s total external debt at an estimated $49.8 billion as of the end of 2019. “
“If African populations are skeptical now of limits on digital media, that opposition might grow as more enter the digital space for commerce, work, education, entertainment and social communications. Shutdowns will generate not only higher economic costs, but likely greater public outrage as well.”
“Statistics South Africa’s quarterly labour force survey found that in the first months of the hard lockdown, 2.2-million people lost their jobs. The country’s labour market lost about 200-million working hours between the first and second quarters of 2020. This, the economists’ report notes, is equivalent to more than 4.4-million weekly working hours.”
“Despite the effects of COVID-19 and the recent blockage of the Suez Canal, Africa’s ports are expanding faster than at any time in their history.”
“Although agriculture has been less severely affected by COVID-19 than other sectors, the pandemic has nevertheless exposed challenges in SADC agro value chains and highlighted areas for improvement.”
“While the government was prompt to address the health and socio-economic dimensions of the pandemic, the lockdowns, school closures and other emergency restrictions were imposed hurriedly without adequate preparation and poor consultation with appropriate stakeholders.”
“This report systematically reconstructs and analyses the state and non-state responses to COVID-19 in Ghana and their impact on the wellbeing of Ghana’s poor and vulnerable, more specifically Kayayei in Accra, residents of Chorkor in Accra and market women in Bolgatanga.”
A hub for information, analysis, and the global response to COVID-19’s impact on Africa