African commodity exporters risk a “disorderly” hit to their economies if they don’t adapt to the reality of low prices, said a senior official at the International Monetary Fund. Some governments in sub-Saharan Africa have been slow to “internalize” the fact that prices of oil and other commodities are likely to remain low, said Abebe Aemro Selassie, director of the IMF’s Africa department. Countries need to let their currencies adjust to lower demand, while shoring up their budget balances, implementing reforms to improve competitiveness and cushioning the impact on the poor, he said. “The alternative is a more disorderly adjustment process when you eventually run out of foreign exchange, when you run out of fiscal space,” Selassie said in an interview in Washington. “These are very difficult political decisions, and we’re under no illusion that putting this in place is going to be easy.” Battered by the commodities slump […]