Africa-Press – Angola. The war in Ukraine and the cut in the supply of food raw materials will increase the bill of oil-importing African countries by 19 billion dollars, estimated the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“For African oil-importing countries, the crisis is expected to increase the import bill by almost 19 billion dollars and, of this group of 37 countries, the most fragile will see a deterioration of 0.8% in their budgetary position, the which is twice the average for all oil-importing countries,” says the IMF.
According to the report on Regional Economic Prospects, released Thursday, African countries are particularly fragile in their response to the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, since, in addition to the rise in fuel prices, they are also experiencing a sharp decline. in imports of food raw materials.
“The conflict could drive up food prices even further, which is particularly worrying for sub-Saharan African countries, which import 85% of their wheat, and others buy a large part of their imports directly from Russia or Ukraine, which makes them especially vulnerable to supply disruptions,” the report reads.
Food raw materials represent 40% of the basic consumption basket in the region and imports represent an important protection against the unpredictability of crops due to climate change, recalls the IMF, noting that “Russia is also an important producer of fertilizers and of natural gas, which is critical in the production of fertilizers, so a prolonged conflict is likely to increase all agricultural costs”.
The difficulty of importing will, in turn, increase food insecurity and social tensions, since “almost two thirds of the calories consumed in the region come from cereals, such as maize, rice and wheat. And “the increase in wheat prices This is especially worrying as even before the war in Ukraine, the number of undernourished people had more than doubled in 2021 to almost a quarter of the population in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
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