In 2009, after years of economic prosperity, the annual growth rate in North Africa slowed from 4.4% to 2.6% as a result of the international financial crisis. The region was affected by lower export earnings, investment flows, and remittances.
However, even though the global downturn has not spared the North Africa region, “good economic fundamentals, appropriate policy responses, and sizeable currency reserves are helping to mitigate the impact of the shock”, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its latest assessment of conditions in the region.
North Africa - like Sub-Saharan Africa - owns an enviable panel of valuable resources from oil to metals, also involving industrial minerals. On top of its resources in oil, gas, and iron, the region has a handful of industrial minerals such as barytes, fluorspar, limestone, gypsum and kaolin (see table p.57). In addition there is a growing cement industry (see table p.58),...