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'Don't judge Africa on Zim'
18/03/2007 18:12 - (SA)
Cape Town - Zimbabwe's economic and political woes should not deter foreign investors from responding to good news elsewhere in Africa, the head of the African Development Bank said on Saturday.
"I don't think we should be discouraged by temporary setbacks in particular areas," Donald Kaberuka, President of the AfDB, told Reuters in an interview when asked how Zimbabwe's troubles would affect investment to the world's poorest continent..
"I think our challenge should be to encourage the momentum (of economic growth in the continent)."
He said Africa was experiencing encouraging economic growth of around 5.5% a year, with some countries registering growth above 10%. However, trouble spots such as Zimbabwe are causing Africa to lose out to trade and aid rivals in Asia.
"We have pockets of difficulties, where one economy is contracting and a few which are not growing above increases in population," Kaberuka said on the sidelines of a World Bank parliamentary conference in Cape Town.
"Growth is very fragile and it is still not adequate for Africa."
Zimbabwe's economy has virtually ground to a halt, thanks to policies critics blame on President Robert Mugabe's government, in particular its seizure of white-owned land to distribute among blacks.
Inflation tops 1 700%, unemployment stands at around 80% while the once prosperous nation struggles with crippling shortages of fuel and food.
Aside from the grim economic story, Zimbabwe is also in the grip of a political standoff between Mugabe's government and members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change who were arrested this week in a crackdown on protests.
Yet Kaberuka said this should not detract from other positive stories on the continent, whose resource rich economies have benefited handsomely from the commodity boom of the past few years.
He said the end of bloody civil wars in countries such as Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo are also cause for optimism.
"I will consider it (the Zimbabwe crisis) a temporary setback in the larger scope of a positive picture and our hope would be that, indeed, issues such as hyper-inflation are addressed," Kaberuka said.
- Reuters
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