Fuel crisis threatens economic recovery

While overall economic performance was described in Annan’s report as “particularly encouraging,” especially in relation to revenue generation, it also warned that the prevailing fuel shortage was “rapidly becoming a major national crisis.” The difficulty has arisen from a disruption of supply from CAR’s traditional suppliers in the port of Matadi, across the Congo River in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as a result of the war there. “Alternative fuel routes are being utilised, but at prohibitive costs, thus placing a heavy burden on the fragile economic upturn,” the report stated. While there were signs that the fuel crisis may be alleviated in the short run - President Ange-Felix Patasse has recently secured agreement with Libya for the initial supply of over 50,000 tonnes of fuel products - a longer term solution was needed to restore normality and “prevent the crippling of the [CAR] economy,” Annan said. The government had promised to tackle corruption and mismanagement, while progress on the privatisation of remaining State enterprises was expected to enhance their performance and efficiency, and thus help further increase revenue for the country, his report added. See full report at http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/vLCE/Central+African+Republic?OpenDocument&StartKey=Central+African+Republic&Expandview The political opposition has put the blame for the current economic crisis squarely on the government, accusing it of “incompetence and negligence” in having allowed the current situation develop, diplomatic sources informed IRIN. The leaders of the 11 main opposition political parties recently issued a statement which laid responsibility for the economic crisis entirely on President Patasse, and described his foreign policy as “diplomatic adventurism” which had isolated CAR in the region and throughout the world, they added.