194/YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE!
exchange, Latin America has had to sell off strategic companies, it
has grown more dependent on volatile investment, and it has a
structural deficit in the balance of trade whose levels resemble those
of the 1980-81 run-up to the last debt crisis.
DEBT IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA ON THE EVE OF THE
THIRD MILLENNIUM
Since 1996, reports published by the international financial institu
tions (IMF, World Bank), the OECD and the media say that
sub-Saharan Africa has got off to a new start thanks to adjustment
policies in place there.
However, a series of social and economic indicators point in the
opposite direction. It is clear that living conditions have actually
deteriorated and that economic indicators are in the red.
According to the 199 7 edition of the UNDP's Report on Human
Development, more than 40 per cent of sub-Saharan Africa's
population of 590 million (220 million people) live below the
threshold of absolute poverty. These people survive on less than S1 a
day. According to the same source, the situation has indeed deterio
rated in recent years:
Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest proportion and fastest growth
of human poverty.... Indeed, poverty has come to dominate life far
and wide in sub-Saharan Africa ... it is estimated that financial
poverty will affect half of sub-Saharan Africa's population by the
year 2000. (UNDP, 1997)In Africa, the economy is not doing any better than the continent's
social indicators.
Three economic indicators should be examined to have an idea of
the real situation in sub-Saharan Africa: its constantly rising external
debt, its rising trade deficit and the low level of private investment.
The External Debt: A Millstone around Africa's Neck
Sub-Saharan Africa's external debt trebled (by 2.8 times to be exact)
between 1980 and 1996, in spite of the S170 billion made in
debt-servicing payments (this includes interest payments and