World’s Biggest Arms Exporters
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the US remains the world’s largest arms exporter responsible for 38% of international arms sales between 2017 and 2021, up from 32% between 2012 and 2016. During the most recent time span, the country supplied arms to more than 100 countries.
Russia remains in 2nd position, but its share has been decreasing.
Between 2017 and 2021, the country was responsible for 18% of global arms exports.
Between 2012 and 2016, it was 24%.
Russia’s biggest customer is India, followed by China, but the latter country has been buying fewer Russian arms in the past. Sales to Algeria and Egypt also declined.
France continued to grow its arms exports, while Germany’s relative importance in the global arms market shrunk. The country was overtaken as the 4th largest exporter by China, which revived international sales.
Italy and South Korea also rose in the ranking compared to last year.
Italy’s biggest export partner is Egypt, but sales in 2021 rose most to Qatar, Turkey and Kuwait.
In the case of South Korea, a major sale to Indonesia upped the country’s export figure.
Source: www.Statista.com
**********
From Maputo to Khartoum, African governments are scrambling to contain the economic fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
While the continent is well removed from the geopolitics that’s led to the conflict, it’s paying a heavy price; the crippling cost of importing oil products, wheat and fertilizer as the fighting crimps supply of the key commodities.
Africa imported $6.9 billion of agricultural commodities alone from the two countries in 2020.
International oil prices surged as sanctions on Russia raised fears of shortages, while the cost of wheat has risen by two-fifths. That means more strain for African economies that have already been decimated by the coronavirus pandemic.
Options are limited. Bread is a staple in several African countries, while oil makes up a large chunk of many nations’ import bills.
Almost half of Sudan’s 44 million people will experience hunger this year as the country seeks an alternative to the 35% of its wheat supplies that came from the two warring nations last year, according to the World Food Programme.
Mozambique is cutting fees levied on fuel to try and keep a lid on prices, while Zimbabwe is reviewing the taxes in a bid to tamp down inflation. South Africa is mulling rationing gasoline and diesel sales. The African Development Bank is looking to accelerate a $1 billion plan to boost wheat production on the continent.
There are some positives — oil producer Angola’s currency is the world’s best performer and mining dependent nations will see more revenue as commodity prices rise. Yet the inflation shock will persist, with Ukraine unlikely to plant much wheat this season and a likely decline in Russian oil supplies.
Source: www.Bloomberg.com
Webinar INVITATION
Trade in Services in Africa
The most difficult topics make the biggest difference.
Join us for a worthwhile webinar, where Donald MacKay and I will discuss: * Numerous proposed South African laws on employment and investment.
- How these will place us in breach of our obligations in terms of the SADC Protocol in Services and the WTO.
- The implications of governmental decisions, and their impacts on the least expected (and often most vulnerable) members of society.
In partnership with Access Bank.
Find out how we ended up here and what can be done so trade within Africa is not disrupted.
Webinar: Wednesday, 23 March 2022 from 10h00 – 11h00.
Click here to register: https://bit.ly/XA_TradeInServicesInAfricaWebinar