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...troubles began five years ago when Mobutu, an autocrat who always carries a traditional tribal chieftain's stick decorated with carved figures of birds and snakes, decreed an ambitious industrialization program. Instead of investing in agriculture-which would have increased food supplies and given many more Zaïrians jobs-Mobutu put $1 billion, much of it borrowed, into projects aimed at a vast expansion of copper exports. He gambled that increasing demand would keep copper prices rising-and he lost. During the world recession, copper prices plunged by 62%, and Zaïre's copper revenues shrank...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: ZAIRE: How to Go Broke | 11/22/1976 | See Source »

...result, three major projects have languished. A $500 million hydroelectric power transmission line that is supposed to snake over 1,200 miles of forest and bush from the Zaïre River (once the Congo) to the copper belt in Shaba (formerly Katanga) is far behind schedule. Construction of a huge addition to the state-owned Gécamines copper mine, financed by the World Bank, the European Investment Bank and the Libyan government, is 18 months late. Work has stopped on the giant new Tenke-Fungurume copper mine, and international backers are handing over $750,000 a month just...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: ZAIRE: How to Go Broke | 11/22/1976 | See Source »

Although Mobutu should have realized that he was making Zaïre more vulnerable than ever to world market fluctuations by concentrating so heavily on copper, he was partly a victim of plain bad luck. He could hardly have foreseen the soaring oil prices that helped depress the economies of his copper-buying customers and multiplied Zaïre's import bills. But there is more to the Zaïre story than that. Mobutu, who styles himself le Guide (the guide), also sank borrowed money-to be repaid out of copper revenues he did not get-into showy...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: ZAIRE: How to Go Broke | 11/22/1976 | See Source »

...state in which the baths reportedly have gold-plated fixtures. A 27-story, $50 million world trade center is rising in Kinshasa; Mobutu hopes to make the city the trading crossroads of Africa-although the telephone system is so poor that some government officials use walkie-talkies. Air Zaïre has two DC-10s but only one Zaïrian pilot who can fly them...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: ZAIRE: How to Go Broke | 11/22/1976 | See Source »

Annual debt service on the borrowings from foreign governments and international agencies necessary to finance all these projects has jumped from $34 million in 1970 to $200 million in 1975. Zaïre last year suffered a balance of payments deficit estimated at more than $500 million, and its inflation rate is now around 40% annually. The nation this year devalued its currency by 42%, doubling prices for imported items like South African canned foods. Mobutu in 1973 forced out many foreign businessmen and farmers in an attempt at "Zaïrianization"; now he has asked many to return...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: ZAIRE: How to Go Broke | 11/22/1976 | See Source »

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