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Africa’s Major Economies Sinking Under the Weight of Surging Debt, Reduced Trade, and Massive New Social Welfare Costs

by Eric Olander

The economic fundamentals in a growing number of Africa’s major economies are showing signs of rapid deterioration amid the ongoing economic crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Seemingly every week there’s a new downgrade, analyst warning, or economic indicator that points to an increasingly dire situation for some of the continent’s largest and most important economies.

Last week, Kenya’s National Treasury and the parliamentary budget office issued fresh warnings about the country’s rapidly increasing debt load, and both sounded the alarm that the country now faces “a high risk of external debt distress.“

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