Veronica Kalema

Email: Veronica.Kalema@fitchratings.com


Veronica KalemaVeronica Kalema is a Director in the Africa & Middle East team of Fitch’s Sovereign Ratings Group based in London. Veronica is a senior member of the team with ten years of sovereign ratings experience, primarily covering ratings in Sub-Saharan Africa, including as Primary Analyst on South Africa and Nigeria. Prior to joining Fitch in March 2001, Veronica worked at the Economist Intelligence Unit in the Country Risk Analysis and Forecasting Department covering Central and Eastern Europe. She was formerly a research associate at the London Business School’s CIS-Middle Europe centre. Veronica obtained a BSc in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University and an MBA and PhD in Economics from the London Business School.




Papers Published in World Economics:


Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub Saharan Africa’s (SSA’s) growth bounced back to 5% in 2010 following a slowdown to 2.8% in 2009 because of the GFC. Moreover, SSA’s 5-plus growth rate is sustainable. Improvements in domestic fundamentals due to better economic management and improved political stability have been mainly responsible for the turnaround in the past decade. The impact of high commodity prices, reorientation of trade to fast growing Asian countries, advances in new technology, especially mobile telephony, will continue to be growth drivers. SSA’s good growth prospects will be underpinned by domestic demand and a surge in Asian demand for some time. However, growth could be higher still, more durable and job-creating if some of the region’s key constraints – infrastructure, governance and skills – were addressed.

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