Africa will also be able to decouple from a U.S. recession because of its strong relationship with China, according to Hale. “China will be able to overcome (a U.S. recession) because it has tremendous growth outside America,” he said.

Urbanisation is causing China’s resources demand to soar, allowing commodities prices to survive slow growth in the U.S. In addition, China is still very poor, giving it a lot of room to grow, according to Hale.

“China will keep re-valuing, making their country more rich,” he said.

Africa benefits from this because its nations are able to help provide China with its increasing commodities needs, Hale said.

“Africa is attracting large amounts of investments to develop its resources,” he said, citing examples of Chinese loans to the Democratic Republic of Congo for copper access and to Angola for oil.

Africa’s new developments are “very exciting stories”, he said. He pointed out that Burkina Faso will have eight new gold mines in three years, and Zambia’s mine output is headed toward a record high. In addition, Zimbabwe could be an interesting investment opportunity in a few months if President Robert Mugabe is successfully removed from office.

When everything is taken into account - not just a possible U.S. recession - Hale said that the global economy is not actually in that much trouble.

“We have had in the past year a remarkably benign global economy,” he said, and Africa has strong enough prospects to continue its growth.

By Arrangement with www.resourceinvestor.com

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