Middle East & Africa | My ratings are better than yours

African governments say credit-rating agencies are biased against them

They claim that pessimism about debt sustainability is unwarranted

ACCRA, GHANA - FEBRUARY 15: Ken Ofori-Atta, Ghana's finance minister addresses pensioners, who are part of the Pensioner Bondholders Forum, as they picket at the Ministry of Finance on February 15, 2023 in Accra, Ghana. Members of the Pensioner Bondholders Forum returned to the Finance Ministry to picket for the 8th day to demand a total exemption of their investments from the Domestic Debt Exchange programme. The government has proposed a 15% coupon rate, but the retirees have stated that they will not accept any cuts on their investments as their lives depend on the proceeds from these investments. (Photo by Ernest Ankomah/Getty Images)
Image: Getty Images
|Kampala

Since the spring of 2022, no country in sub-Saharan Africa has issued a bond on international markets. The yields on African debt have climbed so high that most governments can no longer afford to borrow. The usual explanation is that investors are fleeing risky assets at a time of global uncertainty. But is African debt as perilous as foreign lenders assume?

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Are they unfair?”

From the May 27th 2023 edition

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