AIDS will Africa on the road to ruin - IMF

Southern Africa faces severe economic costs from the HIV/AIDS epidemic, IMF said in its latest World Economic Outlook this week. It said that the region was likely to experience a 1-2 percent decline in annual growth rates. “The HIV and AIDS problem in southern Africa is already of enormous dimension and it is clear that these countries will require considerable external assistance to address it,” the IMF said. The IMF added that by 2010 the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in the worst affected countries could be five percent lower that it would be without the disease. “The epidemic creates a vicious circle by reducing economic growth which leads to increased poverty which in turn facilitates the rapid spread of HIV and AIDS as household food and health spending declines thereby reducing resistance to opportunistic infections,” the IMF warned.