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IMF

AFRICAN countries have to walk a tightrope as they contemplate economic reform at a time of worsening hunger and climate change, the IMF said this week.

In a new report, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said African governments face an “extremely challenging” environment in macroeconomic policy. “Addressing the lack of resilience to climate change (and) critically underlying chronic food insecurity will require careful policy prioritisation against a backdrop of financing and capacity constraints,” it said.

At least 123 million people, or 12% of sub-saharan Africa’s population, are projected to be acutely food insecure.

The impact on economies from Covid-19 has combined with a surge in grain prices fuelled by the Ukraine War, it said. East Africa is suffering from one of the worst droughts in recent history.

Despite these problems, some liberalising reforms in trade, regulations and markets were feasible, the IMF said. | AFP

China/russia

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met for their first face-to-face talks since the start of the conflict in Ukraine this week, hailing their strategic ties in defiance of the

West.

Sitting across from each other at two long rounded tables and flanked by aides, the two leaders met on the sidelines of a summit of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation in ex-soviet Uzbekistan.

The meeting was part of Xi’s first trip abroad since the early days of the pandemic and for Putin, a chance to show Russia has not been fully isolated despite Western efforts.

“China is willing to make efforts with Russia to assume the role of great powers, and play a guiding role to inject stability and positive energy into a world rocked by social turmoil,” Xi told Putin at the talks. | AFP