Mali's economy reorients itself in the face of sanctions and defaults

An aerial view of Mali's capital, Bamako.

Photothek via Getty Images - Thomas Imo

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

Still under the yoke of ECOWAS sanctions, the State of Mali recorded two new payment defaults on the regional market this weekend.

Since January 7, the date of the first sanctions, the amount of unpaid debts in the country has amounted to nearly 230 billion CFA francs.

But for economist Pape Demba Thiam, the economy is holding up and is even on the way to reorienting itself to hold on.

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A former international civil servant, the Senegalese economist Pape Demba Thiam, does not take the same view as some of his colleagues on economic sanctions and wonders about the impact they are currently having.

“ 

This payment default was programmed insofar as it was the regional bodies such as the BCEAO

[Central Bank of West African States]

that decided to impose sanctions.

So, it is difficult to say that we retain the capacity of a country to

honor its deadlines

because we hold its money while wanting to sanction it a second time because the country will not have honored its commitments

, affirms the Senegalese economist.

I am not sure that the asphyxiation of the

"chaos coup"

that had been sought can work, insofar as the Malian government has the possibility of mobilizing or increasing 

the production of gold

and liquidating this gold.

 »

Mali will reorient its economy

For Pape Demba Thiam, the Malian economy will not fall, but will evolve.

“ 

The second thing is that today, investors could have been afraid of the Malian situation, but you know as well as I that the war economy is the economy where we make the most money. 'money.

It seems surprising to me that people could have thought that since January 9, Mali was to fall within two weeks and that the country is still standing.

I believe that we are offering Mali the possibility of reorienting its economy and internalizing it with a density of internal flows that is much greater.

And African countries are likely to join this approach

 .

►Also listen: The African debate - West Africa: how effective are ECOWAS sanctions?

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