Ghanaian Cedi remains fragile The Accra Stock Exchange has had one of its most sluggish months in recent memory. Imports are also slow. Depressed trading is put down to a general lack of liquidity and the severe depreciation of the Cedi. Eight of the 46 approved parties presented candidates. The polls were only marred by controversy over the continuing detention of the opposition leader, Alpha Conde, and his supporters, but there were no reports of trouble.
Guinea is due to hold parliamentary elections before the end of the year.
The Bank says that its soft loan arm, the International Development Association and the International Monetary Fund are supporting the debt relief package. Senegal was earlier denied debt relief under the original HIPC framework because creditors then considered that other sources of debt relief under bilateral arrangements were sufficient for the country to attain a sustainable debt position. HIPC was conceived in 1996 to grant debt relief to countries that were adjudged to have unsustainable debt levels. The enhancements lowered the qualifying thresholds in respect of the ratios of a country's debts to its exports and revenue. These indicate healthy economic governance, but fail to take account of the relative poverty and low base from which Senegal is developing.