{"id":25101,"date":"2016-05-05T00:57:28","date_gmt":"2016-05-05T00:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/burundi-economy-on-the-ropes-amid-political-25101\/"},"modified":"2016-05-05T00:57:52","modified_gmt":"2016-05-05T00:57:52","slug":"burundi-economy-on-the-ropes-amid-political-25101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/burundi-economy-on-the-ropes-amid-political-25101\/","title":{"rendered":"Burundi economy on the ropes amid political crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Effects of recession are plain to see in the capital Bujumbura, many hotels closed.}<\/p>\n

A year into a political crisis which has claimed about 500 lives, driven a quarter of a million into exile and prompted Western donors to suspend government aid, Burundi\u2019s economy is on the ropes.<\/p>\n

The central African country had only just begun to recover from a 1993-2006 ethnic-based civil war when it became sucked back into violence after President Pierre Nkurunziza announced a year ago that he would seek a third term in office.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe economy had been starting to stabilise, inflation was under control, and with average growth of around 4.5 per cent over several years, Burundi seemed to be on the right path,\u201d said an economics professor at Burundi University, who did not wish to be named.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the current crisis has had catastrophic consequences, particularly on public finances\u201d and on the business sector, he told AFP.<\/p>\n

Nkurunziza\u2019s quest for a third term sparked outrage among the opposition and human rights groups, who said the move violated a two-term limit on presidential mandates and flouted a peace deal that ended the civil war.<\/p>\n

Despite mass protests and an attempted coup, Nkurunziza refused calls from the international community to step aside, winning another term in July elections that were boycotted by the opposition.<\/p>\n

{{RECESSION}}<\/p>\n

With his re-election came recession and a further slide in global development ranks.<\/p>\n

The economy shrank by 7.4 per cent in 2015, taking Burundi from the world\u2019s third-poorest country to the poorest, with a GDP of $315.20 dollars per inhabitant, according to the International Monetary Fund.<\/p>\n

The effects of the recession are plain to see in the capital Bujumbura, where most hotels have gone to the wall or laid off most of their staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hotel sector is a disaster zone,\u201d said the owner of a big hotel in the capital, which had only two guests during the first four months of the crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI only kept a tenth of my staff because it\u2019s impossible to just shut up shop given the investments I\u2019ve made and the bank loans I took out,\u201d the hotelier told AFP.<\/p>\n

Like many people in Bujumbura, he refused to give his name for fear of repercussions.<\/p>\n

The collapse of the fledgling tourism sector has also hit the banks that provided loans for hotel construction in the mountainous country in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo-one is paying them back,\u201d the university professor explained.<\/p>\n

In March, the European Union, Burundi\u2019s biggest donor, cut funding to the government in a move aimed at pressuring Nkurunziza into talks with the opposition on a way out of the political deadlock.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very hard blow to the government, even though it has tried to downplay its impact,\u201d a European diplomat in Bujumbura told AFP.<\/p>\n

While the economy had not collapsed per se, the country\u2019s budget deficit has grown and the effects of the recession were \u201cplain to see,\u201d the diplomat said.<\/p>\n

In Bujumbura, at least one bridge on a major road that was washed away by floods has yet to be rebuilt, for lack of funds. Several main roads are also in a dire state of repair. <\/p>\n

\"Heavily<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Effects of recession are plain to see in the capital Bujumbura, many hotels closed.} A year into a political crisis which has claimed about 500 lives, driven a quarter of a million into exile and prompted Western donors to suspend government aid, Burundi\u2019s economy is on the ropes. The central African country had only just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[99],"byline":[228],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-25101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-afp"],"bylines":[{"id":228,"name":"AFP","slug":"afp","description":"Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris. It is the oldest news agency in the world and one of the largest. ","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":71}],"contributors":[{"id":228,"name":"AFP","slug":"afp","description":"Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris. It is the oldest news agency in the world and one of the largest. ","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":71}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25101"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=25101"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=25101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}