{"id":34536,"date":"2021-02-10T18:59:26","date_gmt":"2021-02-10T16:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/?p=34536"},"modified":"2021-02-10T18:54:47","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T16:54:47","slug":"covid-19-us500b-needed-to-jump-start-african-economies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/covid-19-us500b-needed-to-jump-start-african-economies","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19: US$500b Needed To Jump Start African Economies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Zimbabwe<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>By Business Reporter<\/b> – AFRICAN ministers for finance have unanimously agreed that at least US$500 billion will be required to jump start their economies battered by the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

This came out during a recent virtual meeting for the ministers, which was convened by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).<\/p>\n

The continental purse bearers were unanimous in their call for additional liquidity of US$500 billion in Special Drawing Rights (SDR), better market access, more concessional resources and an extension in the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), given the prolonged nature of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

UNECA executive secretary Vera Songwe and IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva also attended the meeting, whose main aim was to discuss Africa\u2019s immediate economic response to the Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know that the Covid-19 pandemic will persist for the next two to three years. Why are we extending the DSSI for six months and not 24 months?\u201d queried Ken Ofori-Atta, Ghana\u2019s Minister of Finance.<\/p>\n

He added the cascading effects of the Covid-19 pandemic were \u201ca frightening thing for a finance minister to witness when they don\u2019t have the means to respond\u201d.<\/p>\n

On access to the markets, Egypt\u2019s Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait said; \u201cthere\u2019s a strong case for vulnerable countries to access the markets at affordable rates to afford essentials such as PPEs (personal protective equipment) and food for their populations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines was also highlighted as an imperative for building a better continent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world stands to lose an estimated US$9 trillion if only the rich get Covid-19 vaccines. 40% of this loss will be in advanced economies,\u201d the IMF chief Georgieva said.<\/p>\n

She noted there is need for; \u201cbold and immediate action for response, recovery, and reset of African economies,\u201d adding \u201cliquidity and financing response is the bridge to vaccines and recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Songwe said the objective of the meeting was to seek IMF support in forging a way out of the crisis by transforming existing liquidity instruments and easing market access to alleviate the debt burden and provide much needed liquidity for Africa.<\/p>\n

Georgieva urged the ministers to prepare for a focused and practical discussion during the 2021 Spring Meetings.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow is the moment to demonstrate that SDR allocation can be part of a comprehensive support framework, together with debt reduction, debt relief and policy support actions in the countries,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The ministers agreed on the need for concerted efforts to accelerate reforms and increase revenues, improve expenditure, and manage debt to attract more private sector investments into Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. By Business Reporter – AFRICAN ministers for finance have unanimously agreed that at least US$500 billion will be required to jump start their economies battered by the Covid-19 pandemic. This came out during a recent virtual meeting for the ministers, which was convened by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":34535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6,35,15],"tags":[1493,2189,19],"class_list":["post-34536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-zimbabwe-2","tag-zimbabwe"],"yoast_head":"\nCovid-19: US$500b Needed To Jump Start African Economies - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Business Reporter - AFRICAN ministers for finance have unanimously agreed that at least US$500 billion will be ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/covid-19-us500b-needed-to-jump-start-african-economies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Covid-19: US$500b Needed To Jump Start African Economies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Business Reporter - 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