Interview: Africa Yet To Feel Full Force Of Slowdown.

In an interview with Reuters, International Finance Corporation (IFC) Sub-Saharan Country Director Saleem Karimjee said, "Africa's economies are yet to feel the full force of a consumer slowdown in the West, which is likely to cause some corporate failures but nothing like on the scale of other regions... 'My concern in Africa is that the real sector will start to hurt, and it hasn't yet felt all of the impact of the crisis,' said Karimjee.... As the crisis evolves into a wider recession, affecting the spending habits of consumers in Europe and the US, any related African economy would feel a direct squeeze, Karimjee said. 'It's hard to predict -- how will the average family in the UK change their shopping behavior because of the crisis?' he told Reuters in an interview Tuesday, saying his views did not necessarily reflect the official ones of the IFC. 'Will they stop buying roses every week and buy them only two weeks and how will that affect the cut-flower industry in Kenya?' he said. 'This is the cycle I feel has not yet been fully experienced in Africa.'...

However, despite the occasional but inevitable failure in manufacturing and other industries, there was little risk of a domino-effect ripple through its still relatively unsophisticated banking system, Karimjee said. 'I don't think the banks are exposed to the extent that the few failures you will see in the real sector will cause them to crash,' he said...." [Reuters/Factiva]