Seeking the ‘shoots’ of economic recovery

Has the economic crisis reached bottom, with slow recovery under way? Or is the world facing continued recession and with it deepening poverty for many Africans? “No one can tell with any degree of certainty whether the worst for the global economy is over,” Donald Kaberuka, president of the African Development Bank (ADB), responded at the opening of the Bank’s annual meeting in Dakar, Senegal, in May. There is consensus among forecasters that global output will decline this year, but they disagree about the depth of the recession and when and how strongly growth will be renewed.