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NEWS BRIEFS
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Ethiopia to overtake Kenya as Eastern Africa’ s top economy
Ethiopia’ s economy is expected to overtake Kenya’ s this year, buoyed by massive government spending on infrastructure that has kept the Horn of Africa nation in the list of the world’ s fastest economies in the past 10 years.
The International Monetary Fund’ s( IMF) latest statistical estimates indicate that Ethiopia’ s gross domestic product( GDP) is forecast to grow from $ 61.62 billion in 2015 to $ 69.21 billion this year, narrowly beating Kenya’ s output which is expected to rise from $ 63.39 billion to $ 69.17 billion over the same period.
“ Ethiopia has experienced double-digit economic growth, averaging 10.8 per cent since 2005, which has mainly been underpinned by public-sector-led development,” the African Development Bank, the OECD Development Centre and the United Nations Development Programme say in the latest African Economic Outlook report.
Kenya’ s GDP of $ 14.1 billion in 2000 was 71.6 per cent larger than Ethiopia’ s $ 8.23 billion in the same year but the Horn of Africa nation has closed the economic gap in the last five years of robust growth.
The IMF’ s GDP estimates are based on current market prices using exchange rates prevailing between July 22 and August 19.
Climate change to cost Africa over $ 3 trillion
Someone once said that deforestation in the tropics was one of the worst crises since we came out of our caves 10,000 years ago.
Even though forests have a vital role to play in the fight against global warming as they absorb and store carbon in their trees and soil, felling trees has for long remained man’ s favourite activity.
Over the years, forests have been converted to non-forest land for use such as arable land, pasture, urban use, logged area, wasteland, etc, which leads to the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, subsequently causing global warming.
The United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organisation( FAO) estimates that the world loses 18 million acres of forest each year.
Now it’ s time for us to pay the price-- and it’ s pretty high! In Africa alone, countries will have to fork out at least $ 2.7 trillion for mitigation measures and another $ 488 billion for adaptation to climatic change by 2030, experts say.
World Bank estimates indicate that Africa needs between $ 5 to $ 10 billion per year to adapt to global warming, but these numbers will continue to increase as the years go by. The Bank has committed to mobilise about $ 90 billion for adaptation programmes to global warming by 2020, according to media reports.
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