Freelance Journalist
In-depth reporting on African economic and geopolitical stories.
Features from across the continent, supported by vivid frontline photography.
Stories backed by data, forensic financial and osint investigative tools.
Freelance Journalist
Freelance Journalist
Freelance Journalist
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The supply-side mayhem caused by pandemic and war and that sparked a bout of global inflation for the first time in a generation; Whether transitory or not, what is certain is that it is a dry-run for the persistent and much higher inflation or even stagflation we were always likely to face later in the decade.
An edited version of this article appeared in the Opinions and Analysis section of Business Day (South Africa) on 23/12/2021: https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2021-12-23-george-philipas-infrastructure-spending-in-africa-is-at-a-crossroads/
The pandemic has certainly not been kind to investment prospects in Africa. Lead by a slowdown in infrastructure investment from China, foreign direct investment (FDI), already heading south before the onset of the pandemic, fell by 18% in 2020. More ominously, greenfield investment, investment in new projects, fell precipitously by 63% according to the Global Investment Trends Monitor released by UNCTAD in Jan 2021, the largest regional fall on the globe last year. The proverbial onslaught culminated with the announcement earlier this month at the recent Forum of China-Africa Cooperation conference (FOCAC) in Dakar, Senegal that plots Sino-African relations for the next three years, of a vertical drop in investment from China from US$ 60 billion to US$40 billion.
Congo drops demand for immediate Rwandan troop pullout, sources say https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/congo-drops-demand-for-immediate-rwandan-troop-pullout-5096624
The devil is in the details.
The forthcoming U.S.-brokered peace agreement to be signed by Rwanda and DRC contains a last minute clause that allows the suspected 7000 or so RDF
July 1 reckoning: Somalia mission faces funding cliff
The African Union Support and Stabilisation Mission (AUSSOM) in Somalia is facing a financial cliff edge this coming Monday.
With no funding being found after 6 months of desperate attempts to
US wants Rwandan troops out of Congo before peace deal signed, sources say
MEDIUM FEED
When it comes to climate change, it won’t be the weather that dooms us.
Policy discussions continue to centre on inflation, conveying confidence that anticipated monetary easing will heal the world’s economic ...
Apr 29, 2024 / Read More
The irony of an authoritarian Protestant King: The golden age of politics and economics bequeathed…
More than anything, what Trump’s populist political acumen has tapped into in the United States, is far more innate to the American condi...
Mar 09, 2024 / Read More
Forget AI, the internet, gaming, or even social media. Television is the original and biggest sin.
The untold damage reaped by society’s visualisation.
Aug 11, 2023 / Read More
Kobayashi is Keyser Soze (not Verbal). And it drives me crazy that no-one can see it
In a recent late-night internet wonder I came across an exposition written in that eye-rolling, high-brow quasi-art language that could o...
Jul 16, 2023 / Read More
Inflation is coming down nicely… but will it last?
2 nasty shocks may be in store that could bring hgher inflation sooner rather than later
Jul 16, 2023 / Read More
Stagflation and a looming credit crunch and debt crisis
Why inflation and interest rates will be higher this decade and run the very real risk of fomenting the biggest debt crisis in the modern...
Jul 14, 2023 / Read More
