DAKAR – The slump in prices for Africa’s natural resources,which led to chronic deficits in the past, has beenreversed.

Concern was expressed about the negative impact the slump in prices was having on new project start-ups in the oil and gas sector, and on the abandonment of projects in the mining sector, including several large-scale infrastructural projects.

In addition, the marked decline in foreign aid and the slump in export prices of cashew nuts, our main export commodity, constitute the basic reason for our lack of resources and for the increase in poverty.

El Salvador is heavily dependent on remittances from abroad, by far its highest source of income, with offshore assembly plants in second place and a depressed agricultural sector, particularly after the current slump in coffee prices, a distant third.

The developing countries, in particular the least developed among them, continue to be marginalized in the world economy and to be victims of extreme poverty, due mainly to decreased official development assistance, to the lack of productive human resources, to the weakness of domestic and foreign investments, to the slump in commodity prices, to the problems of debt, to HIV/AIDS and also, obviously, to armed conflicts.

It further noted that the price hike for a number of commodities had put a heavy burden on many developing countries relying on imports of food and energy commodities, and had contributed to food crises in a number of countries in 2007-2008, while the slump of commodity prices in the second half of 2008 had been one of the main channels through which the dramatic slowdown of economic and financial activity in the major industrialized countries was transmitted to the developing world.