The impact of the global financial crisis in Africa

On the back of the fallout from the current global financial crisis, world growth in 2009 is expected to decline to its lowest rate in 60 years. In 2008, the collapse in demand stemming from the financial crisis, coupled with synchronised falls in manufacturing and industrial production, trade credit financing problems and low consumer confidence, triggered a fall in world trade growth to just 4 percent. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Trade and Development Report 2008, the global economy is teetering on the brink of recession.