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Africa's Debt Burden In Historical Perspective, M. O. Ojo

Economic and Financial Review

The purpose of the paper is to outline the profile of Africa's debt burden since the early 1980s. The paper reviews the economic performance of African countries, trends in their external debt stock and structure as well as their debt burden measured by the conventional debt ratios. It also undertakes a review of the causes of increased debt burden of African countries. The major findings are that deteriorating economic performance in Africa since the early 1980s was accompanied by increased external debt burden fcatu1·ing lower export earnings, reduced income growth and mounting (paid and unpaid) external debt obligations. Some of …