Going for gold in Africa
Mining in Africa is not for the faint-hearted. The many challenges include stifling bureaucracy, political risk and, more recently, fallout from private paramilitary groups
According to Johns Hopkins University academic Steve Hanke, Zimbabwe ranks as the world’s most miserable nation — a perspective taken not of the national character but of its economic outlook. Hyperinflation has devastated the country in the past and might return after President Emmerson Mnangagwa unveiled plans in May to encourage use of the local currency rather than the dollar.
Central to Zimbabwe’s ranking on Hanke’s annual misery index is its mafia political class, its high unemployment rate (20%), and poor GDP growth (0.9%) — factors that will ring familiar to local ears. But it’s the recent increase in inflation, up 176%, that pushes it over the edge, beyond war-torn Ukraine and Sudan. ..
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