Africa coping with higher oil prices

The International Monetary Fund says African countries are dealing better with the current rising price of oil than they did during similar price hikes in previous years. The Assistant Director of the IMF's African department, Sanjeev Gupta, says the organisation has had no requests for additional finance to cope with the oil increases. He puts this down to the rising price of other commodities, such as copper and gold, which has helped cushion the blow for those African countries that are mineral exporters. The higher foreign currency reserves carried by many African countries and an increased willingness to pass rising prices of petroleum products on to consumers also play a role.