under the pressure of difficult economic conditions; Rising commodity prices have forced millions of the continent’s nearly 800 million people to cut their expenditures to a minimum.
Maiedo Simon, who works as a government employee in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, told Sky News Arabia that the high prices prompted him to reduce his festive habits and expenses, which he used to have at Christmas every year.
Like Simon, millions of people on the African continent face great difficulties in providing the basic needs of the holiday season, which made them abandon many customs such as exchanging gifts, holding family banquets, and other customs that characterized Christmas celebrations in Africa.
Indeed; The festive seasons have been giving a great impetus to the African economy as consumer spending increases dramatically; However, in the current year, the consumer momentum has declined significantly compared to previous years, which may increase the burdens faced by many economies of the continent.
The economist, Zmedina Ngato, points out that most Africans; They celebrate Christmas and New Year’s holidays to a minimum this year; This is due to the high prices of goods and services and the erosion of the purchasing value of wages in light of the high inflation rates to an average of 14.5 percent.
Ngatu, Chairman of the Fairfax Africa Advisory Fund, said high inflation was a challenge across Africa due to rising commodity prices.
Ngato told Sky News Arabia that there are three main reasons behind the deterioration of economic conditions in Africa, which are the repercussions of the Russian-Ukrainian war, which led to the disruption of grain and energy supplies. In addition to the significant decline in the exchange rates of many African currencies after the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates. The third reason, according to Ngato, is represented in the repercussions resulting from the bad weather conditions in many African countries, especially in East Africa, which caused crop failures and thus led to food shortages and increased prices.
As a result of these factors; Ngatu expects average economic growth in Africa to slow in 2022 to 3.3 percent, compared to 4.1 percent in 2021; However, if oil and other commodity prices decline, it would be reasonable to expect an improvement in average GDP growth in Africa in mid-2023.
Until Ngatu’s predictions for the coming year are confirmed, Simon and other Africans will continue to cope with the current economic hardship and forgo many of the festivities they have held at the end of each year. In this context; Gabriel Anthony, a member of the Catholic community in southern Sudan, says that he never expected that economic conditions would force the people of the African continent to reduce the annual festive appearances. But this year’s sharp inflation ate away all household savings.
He explained to Sky News Arabia, “There were some difficulties in the past years, but the matter has worsened more in the current year, and therefore many will not be able to exchange gifts and hold noisy celebrations, and this began evidently from the movement of the markets, which is witnessing a calm that is not used to in such days of previous years.” “.
In line with the difficult conditions experienced by the people of the African continent, many charitable associations and organizations resorted to directing their activities during the current Christmas season towards collecting money and holding charitable parties to help provide food for millions of hungry people, at a time when United Nations reports confirmed that one in five of the continent’s population is at risk of food insecurity.
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