WB expert warns of dire straits for capital inflows

On Tuesday, World Bank Development Prospects Group Manager Andrew Burns told Mmegi that it was likely that Botswana would attain its targeted five percent growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 2010/11. However, the expected tightening of capital markets in High Income Countries (HICs) would dent economic growth for Botswana and other developing countries in 2011 and beyond.

"For the moment, interest rates in the HICs are back to where they were prior to the recession," Burns said. "But we expect that as the measures that have been taken by the US and others ebb out of the system, interest rates will go up.