SSA: Corporate Debt Not A Risk Yet - Part I

While we believe that sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)'s growth outlook as a whole will remain generally positive over the course of 2008, global economic conditions have deteriorated noticeably since our last quarterly Sovereign Risk Ratings update in December 2007. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, surging fuel and food prices have worsened the inflationary outlook in most SSA countries. Although skyrocketing commodity prices bode well for the continent's resource-rich nations, rising energy costs put increasing pressures on countries' external accounts and fiscal balances, as many governments have already been forced to start subsidising food staples and fuel in an effort to maintain social stability.

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