"Crisis 'will cost Africa $49bn'"

Source: BBC News, 16 March 2009.

"The financial crisis and global recession will see African economies lose up to to $49bn by the end of this year, research by ActionAid suggests.

"About $27bn of this was a fall in aid, export earnings and income from richer recession-hit nations said the charity.

"The lost income is equivalent to a 10% pay cut for the continent, it added."

Comment: BBC is reporting that while the economic crisis is going to produce unemployment, losses of homes, and general belt tightening in Europe and the United States, it is going to kill people in Africa.

The ActionAid story is just one more piece of evidence as to the seriousness of the current crisis in developing nations. JAD