International Crisis Group

Armenia in the vice: Prisoner of history | The Economist

ARMENIA tends to feature in the news because of its problems (history, geography, demography and economics to name but a few. But a new report from the International Crisis Group (ICG) says not all is doom and gloom. The parliamentary elections in May showed significant improvement. Media coverage was more balanced, and the authorities permitted greater freedom of assembly, expression and movement than in previous years. Like Georgia, Armenia has a class of “30-something” technocrats, whose western education and global outlook means they are less rooted in the Soviet mentality than their elders. That bodes well for the future.

The economy is still recovering from the global financial crisis, which saw GDP contract by 14.2% in 2009. In the same period, the construction sector contracted by more than 40%. Remittances from the diaspora dropped by 30%. That led Forbes magazine to label Armenia the world’s second worst performing economy in 2011–much to Yerevan’s irritation. Although official statistics claim 8 percent unemployment, 48% of respondents told a recent survey they were looking for a job. Over one-third of the country lives below the poverty line. Complaints of corruption are widespread, and inflation is high.

FULL ARTICLE (The Economist)

Reuters | Analysis: Post-war Ivory Coast nurtures second “miracle”

By Joe Bavier

From his lagoon-side allotment in Ivory Coast’s economic capital Abidjan, Moussa Yanda has a ringside seat to watch the foundations of a $290-million toll bridge slowly rise up from the shore.

“I love watching it,” enthused the softly-spoken 45-year-old as he packed up his garden tools for the day. “When things are developing, we realize we’re going to make it through this.”

Little over a year ago such optimism was scarce. Mortar bombs were pouring down around Yanda’s city garden as the West African country slipped into a civil war that claimed over 3,000 lives and forced thousands more to flee their homes.

Now, helped by billions of dollars of donor cash, President Alassane Ouattara wants to shore up the peace with a dash for economic growth like the “Ivorian miracle” which turned the country into a regional powerhouse after independence in the 1960s.

Internationally recognized as winner of a presidential election in December 2010, Ouattara had to wait over four months to enter office as incumbent Laurent Gbagbo refused to step down, pushing the country towards self-destruction.

Old ethnic wounds were opened in the violence that brought the economy of the world’s top cocoa-grower to a halt. Ouattara spent much of the conflict in an Abidjan hotel besieged by pro-Gbagbo forces before his northern allies, backed by French troops, ejected Gbagbo from his palace.

Ouattara, a 70-year-old former top International Monetary Fund official, appears determined to make up for lost time. Each day a new strip of pot-holed road is patched up and the mirror-windowed skyscrapers of Abidjan’s Plateau financial district now show few signs of the battles waged there.

FULL ARTICLE (Reuters)