Is there an "Africa penalty" in sovereign ratings by credit agencies?

On the information problems associated with risk analysis in Africa

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I: There are signs that creditors are willing to bet on African economies again

African economies have had a decade of low growth and stagnant per capita incomes. However, as I keep arguing, this time is different. The current regional economic slowdown is unlikely to precipitate the sort of disastrous outcomes witnessed in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Moving forward, it will be important for African governments to avoid total fiscal meltdowns and associated austerity-obsessed structural adjustment programs that characterized the 1980s. The imperative during this difficult but transitory period ought to be to protect the human development gains in healthcare, education, and nutrition made over the last 30 years. For the most part, African economies are in a position to grow out of their current fiscal squeeze.

That is why Benin’s and Cote …