According to the IMF, public debt as a share of GDP reached an average of 56% in sub-Saharan Africa last year. African countries are now spending roughly the equivalent of a fifth of their total revenues in paying external debts off. That is the highest rate since before the debt forgiveness in the early 2000s and putting a big squeeze on these countries.
Many of the continent’s economies are hamstrung by debt—much of it held internationally. We look at the growing need for closer co-operation between China, Western creditors and multilateral institutions. A city on Ukraine’s front line has become an unlikely locus for love stories. And unpicking the link between workers’ productivity and their drugs of choice.
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