Middle East & Africa | Who will blink first?

Equatorial Guinea is still waiting for its IMF bail-out

It might come faster if the government did something about corruption

MORE THAN a year after being promised an IMF bail-out, the tiny petrostate of Equatorial Guinea has yet to see most of the money it hoped would revive its economy. Before oil prices slumped in 2014 the country was, on paper, one of Africa’s richest per person. But since the slump it has been weighed down by budget and current-account deficits. Its economy shrank in each of the past six years (see chart).

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Who will blink first?”

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