Macron calls for "a New Deal" for financing African economies

Emmanuel Macron called on Tuesday to prepare “

a New Deal

” to help African countries overcome the “

very strong slowdown

” in their economies since the Covid-19 crisis, before a financial summit scheduled for May 18 in Paris.

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Speaking to the press before a lunch with Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi at the Elysee Palace, the French president insisted on "

the shock that the (African) continent has suffered since 2020

".

"

It is a very strong slowdown on a continent in full demographic expansion

", he specified.

Innovative solutions

Faced with this, "

we cannot do with yesterday's recipes

" while "

we are collectively in the process of abandoning Africa to solutions that date from the 1960s

", he regretted. "

We absolutely must invent for next May 17 and 18 a New Deal for financing Africa

", based in particular on "

deeply innovative solutions

", continued Emmanuel Macron, referring to the "

New Deal

" ("

New deal

Implemented by US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to combat the impact of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"

Otherwise we will leave the African continent facing poverty (...) facing the reduction of economic opportunities, an undergone migration and the expansion of terrorism, and that I do not want to resolve

", he said. -he adds.

France is due to host the Summit on the financing of the economies of sub-Saharan Africa on May 18 in Paris, with the participation of a dozen African leaders and European officials and large international organizations, such as the IMF or the World Bank.

On May 17, a conference devoted to Sudan's debt will be held in the French capital.

Restructuring the debt

Africa's debt fell sharply in the 1990s following the IMF and World Bank initiative in favor of poor and heavily indebted countries (HIPCs).

Before starting to rise again: between 2006 and 2019, it tripled, from 100 to 309 billion dollars.

And the Covid-19 crisis has not helped.

According to the IMF, the countries of sub-Saharan Africa could be facing a financing gap of 290 billion dollars by 2023. As of April 2020, a moratorium on debt service was put in place by the government. Paris Club and the G20, which deferred the payment of $ 5.7 billion in interest.

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Then, in October, pushed in particular by Emmanuel Macron, the G20 agreed on a "

common framework

" to restructure the debt of certain countries, involving private creditors and China, by far the largest donor to African countries. (Angola, Kenya and Ethiopia are its top three debtors).