Africa: Falling Oil Prices Deal Bigger Economic Blow to Africa than Ebola

Nov 27, 2014 | Reuters
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Plunging world oil prices have dealt a blow to Africa far greater - in purely economic terms - than Ebola, setting back investment in exploration and plans to industrialize.

The highest profile victim so far has been Africa's top producer, Nigeria, which was forced to devalue its naira currency by 8 percent this week after the central bank admitted dwindling reserves were making it hard to defend it.

In dollar terms, the devaluation knocked $40 billion off the value of Nigeria's economy - considerably more than the $32 billion worst-case scenario the World Bank projected in October for Ebola's economic impact on the entire sub-Saharan region.