AIDS to cut economic potential

Botswana’s AIDS epidemic will cost the country a third of its economic potential in the coming 10 years, a new government report was quoted as saying on Monday.

“HIV is the single greatest threat to human welfare and development in Botswana and the rigorous planning and monitoring of interventions against it should be given the highest priority,” said the report, prepared for the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning by the Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis.

According to the report one in five of country’s 1.5 million citizens has tested positive, and a quarter of all economically active adults are infected. It added that up to 50 percent of all households in Botswana were likely to have at least one infected member over the next 10 years, while a quarter could expect to lose an income earner.

The report said Botswana’s economy over the next decade would be 31 percent smaller than it would have been without the epidemic. The epidemic would reduce yearly gross domestic product growth by 1.5 percent and cause a shortage of skilled workers.