/ 2 January 2001

POVERTY AID FOR MOZAMBIQUE

THE African Development Bank will give Mozambique $120m in loans to fight poverty, the Mozambican Planning Ministry has announced. Mozambique, whose devastating, 16-year civil war ended in 1992, had been one of southern Africa’s economic success stories, with an average 10% annual growth. But the floods cut economic growth this year to 3.8%. About $32m of the loan is to be spent rehabilitating roads damaged in the floods. A further $64m is earmarked to support the government’s ongoing economic reforms.