Senegal President Macky Sall called Sunday for the creation of a pan-African credit ratings agency, saying that the "very arbitrary" nature of the system of assessment by international organizations made it more expensive for African countries to borrow on global debt markets. Sall, who is currently head of the African Union, told private radio RFM that there was a need — "given the injustices, the sometimes very arbitrary ratings" by international agencies — "to have a pan-African" body. That meant that 56% of African countries saw their credit ratings downgraded, compared with 31% of countries globally over the same period, Sall argued. As a result, "the perception of investment risk in Africa is always much higher than the real risk. African countries continued to pay much higher interest rates as a result of this unfair system, Sall said.

Source: Ethiopian News May 15, 2022 20:32 UTC