At the end of 2014, the international debt of sub Saharan Africa (South Africa excluded) reached $402 billion, an update published by World Bank revealed. This volume exceeds that of Middle-east and Northern Africa ($187.8 billion) but is still lower than that of developing countries ($5,393 billion).

Though making only 24.5% of national gross income, the sum, over the period considered, represented 87% of overall export in the Region ($462.7 billion).

Moreover, sub Saharan Africa (SSA) had only $172 billion of foreign reserves while Latin America had $720.4 billion and developing countries had $6,100 billion. Also, between 2008 and 2014, SSA’s external deficit soared from 5 billion to 52.4 billion dollars.

A good point however is that short-term international bonds made only 14.5% of overall debt. In regard to this, SSA is better ranked than developing countries that had a 53% rate.

In sight of the plunge in prices of commodities, the International Monetary Fund now insists on the necessity for African countries to adopt a more prudent method in their strategies for international debts.

Idriss Linge