Today is the last Friday of this year. As we celebrate Christmas, it is important to take stock of what has taken place, both locally and internationally, during this year that only has a week left on it. For instance, this year has seen Rwanda rising in its glories. The country was applauded for meeting most of the key Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). There has been strong economic growth accompanied by substantial improvements in living standards, evidenced by a drop in child mortality and the attainment of near-universal primary school enrolment. A strong focus was on homegrown solutions and initiatives that have contributed significantly to the improvements in access to services and in human development indicators. The country has been ranked top in countless number of things across diverse sectors of the economy. It is no doubt that the year has been of greatness significance to Rwanda and the Rwandan people. However, on the global arena, this year has been one with the mixed signals. Many issues have taken centre stage across the world, from the economic, political to social spheres. The global economy has stumbled from one pothole to the next. Big economies have had a rough share of fluctuating records. America and China, for instance, have had their economies slowed to a crawl. Despite the latter’s which has been slowing for years now, this year’s stock market turmoil and a surprise devaluation of the Yuan contributed to worries and anxieties that the Chinese economy is worse than expected. As China accounts for fifteen percent of global output, the effects of the slowdown was felt around the world. Undoubtedly it was unusual for the world’s second-largest economy to be a middle-income country that is not entirely market-driven. Given the importance of China to the world economy, the big league members became very concerned with the greater ups and downs that were likely to be seen in the global economy as a result. China experienced uneasy effects of transitioning from an investment-driven to a consumption-driven economy, which should lead to more sustainable, though slower, growth. Their average double-digit growth experienced in past decades is not likely to return, and its neighbours will be forced to make some transitions of their own. In the neighbouring Europe, fears of a Greek exit from the Euro zone worried markets. Attention was shifted from China, where the government is fumbling to contain a stock market rout. In the background another ominous trend has been developing: world trade shrank on a quarterly basis in both the first and second quarter of this year, economists say this was the worst performance since the height of the financial crisis. The Russia-Ukraine crisis affected the world too. The tension and hostilities between Ukraine and Russia had unsettled and disrupted the stock exchanges to a minuscule degree internationally and to a slightly more significant extent in the east European countries earlier in the year. The year also bore the economic impact of Syrian war and the spread of ISIS. Neighbouring countries suffered economic losses as a side-effect of the Syrian crisis, with government revenues falling dramatically because of interrupted trade and the loss of business and consumer confidence. As the numbers of refugees and internally displaced kept climbing, and as families were torn apart and neighborhoods turned into war zones, economies slumped and regional economic ties broke down. The shock and awe of the war has changed the world in profound ways, yet no one has done a systematic evaluation of its economic effect. This is seen as a time throughout history when larger migrations have taken place which created huge population surges. The higher population numbers placed considerable strain on the infrastructure and services within the respective host countries which had different receptions of the scenario. Terrorism has imposed significant effects on the world economies leading to not only direct material damage, but also to long term effects on the local economy. This has forced national and world authorities to spend billions on the prevention of terrorism and the detection, prosecution and punishment of terrorists this year. Closer to home, the year has seen the escalating Burundi’s political unrest that has also continued hurting the East African regional economy. Violence and instability has created unbearable impacts on their local and nearby economies. Nevertheless, the year has also been a watershed for humanity, with the adoption by UN member states of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September, to help guide the world community towards a more inclusive and sustainable pattern of global development. Also, over one hundred and ninety countries agreed on a deal that would start reducing the risks of climate change by cutting their use of fossil fuels that create dangerous greenhouse gas emissions. This came as the world population, the total number of living humans on Earth, estimated to be seven billion as of July, according to the medium fertility estimates by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Without doubt, 2015 has been an eventful year! oscar_kim2000@yahoo.co.uk
