11 November 2008
Port Louis — Inflation will also be lower than expected for this year. Despite the financial crisis, one of the world's poorest countries is managing to keep it's economy afloat.
Exploration companies are pouring into the country, hoping to capitalise on the country's mineral sources and potential oil reserves.
Madagascar's economy is set to grow by 7.5 % in 2009 with the mining, hotel and agriculture sectors leading expansion, a top finance ministry said yesterday.
Parliamentarians on the Indian Ocean Island voted on Friday for a Finance bill which also forecast the economy would grow by 7.1 % this year.
"Our GDP (growth) is predicted to be 7.5 % for the year 2009," Henri Bernard Razarkariasa, Secretary General at the Ministry of Finance, told Reuters.
Inflation will be higher than expected at 8.8 % due to the "continued tensions at the international level" according to the bill, but lower than the 11 % estimated for this year.
MIning boom
Hit by the worldwide financial crisis, investment for 2009 is expected to be down 2.6 % on this year at 33.4 % of GDP.
"Next year will see the start of production and exports from several mines, most notably QMM in the south east of the island," said Razarkariasa.
QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM), a joint venture between Rio Tinto and the Madagascar government, is mining ilmenite, which is used in products such as food colouring, sunscreen and paint.
Multinational companies are pouring into the world's fourth largest island to capitalise on the country's vast mineral resources and potential oil reserves.
Madagascar is in the early stages of a mining boom for nickel, cobalt, bauxite and ilmenite.
Exploration companies are also looking for oil, gold, coal, chromium, gemstones, platinum and uranium.
The island is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranked 143rd on the UN's human development index. Earlier this year, it was hit by two successive cyclones killing nearly 100 people and rendering more than 330,000 homeless.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 L'Express. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
