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Vol 38 No 9

Published 25th April 1997


Congo-Kinshasa

Business at war

As Laurent-Désiré Kabila's forces march towards Kinshasa, arguments about Zaïre's economic future are heating up

However Mobutu Sese Seko is finally chased from the Presidency, Zaïre's new rulers will inherit a formal economy that barely exists. In 1996 gross domestic product was just over half its 1988 level, and the population was still growing. The 1996 per capita income was about US$125, less than half the 1988 figure. Only the efforts of small-scale farmers, miners and traders – the informal sector – are averting pauperisation.

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