China’s deteriorating economy is having a domino effect across Africa, with Angola, Republic of the Congo and Mauritania feeling the brunt of the Asian country’s slowdown.
In 2014, more than 45% of exports from these countries were injected into China’s economy. According to a Mail & Guardian report, oil accounts for the bulk of Angola and Congo’s exports, damaging the countries’ prospects after crude prices dropped 55% in June last year to less than US$50 a barrel. This has also led to Angola’s kwanza dropping 24% against the dollar earlier in the year.
Christie Viljoen, an economist at NKC African Economics, says that countries such as Angola, which basically has only one commodity, get knocked the hardest when prices fall and less oil is exported to China.
Meanwhile, the price of iron ore – which makes up more than 40% of Mauritania’s exports – dropped by nearly a third in the past year.
