Angola & Cabinda (catch all)
http://maic.jmu.edu/journal/10.2/boo...fitzgerald.htm
Reviewed by Katie FitzGerald [Mine Action Information Center]
Quote:
Each photograph expresses the different facets of the Angolans' lives: from families walking for days to wait in line for food donations from the International Committee of the Red Cross to children bathing under bridge crossings despite the dangers of the ever-present landmines.
Angola: the pealing of the doomsday bells
Quote:
We can currently observe a great variety of ‘morbid symptoms’ of fin de régime in Angola, ranging from the farcical to the tragic. It would appear the government of long-time President, José Eduardo dos Santos, and his ruling MPLA can hear the pealing of the doomsday bells. However, according to the official interpretation, this impending doom is not a result of years of misrule, politics of exclusion, and the recent steep decline in oil prices, which quite dramatically revealed the persistent, gross mismanagement of public revenues, but rather because of the conspiracies of ‘internal enemies’.
Link:http://africanarguments.org/2015/07/...-jon-schubert/
Turbulence as oil price drops
Quote:
Angola – where oil accounts for nearly half of GDP, more than two-thirds of government revenue and nearly 98% of export earnings – has an estimated break-even oil price of around US$110 per barrel, and is expected to run a budget deficit of at least 7% of GDP in 2015, despite drastically cutting its 2015 expenditure plans. Luanda is currently attempting to issue debt to global investors to fund its budget deficit. But with increased investor risk aversion due to a more uncertain global economic outlook, emerging-market borrowers – already squeezed by exchange-rate depreciation – are likely to incur higher premiums, making hard-currency debt all the more expensive to service. Meanwhile, Angola’s already impoverished general population has experienced severe shortages in food and medicine, prompting public displays of anti-government sentiment despite notoriously unforgiving security forces. Popular discontent is seen as a factor in President Jose Eduardo dos Santos’s surprise announcement earlier this month that he would step down in 2018 after 37 years as head of state.
Taken from an IISS Strategic Comment email.