By relying on ready cash from oil and metals extraction,sub-Saharan African countries risk squandering their chance to invest in the continent’s futureAs leaders of some African countries brace themselves for a rocky financial year, they might reflect ruefully on the words of Polish author Ryszard Kapuciński: “Oil is a resource that anaesthetises thought, and blurs vision,corrupts.” As the wheels advance off a decade-long commodities supercycle, Africa’s oil-producing and metal-wealthy giants find themselves facing a hazardous mix of lower export revenues, or depreciating currencies,declining financial flows from China, falling domestic demand and higher debt costs following last month’s US interest rate rise.
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Source: theguardian.com