African economies began this year facing no shortage of challenges, including lower global demand for their goods and services, unpredictable tariffs and other trade barriers, post-pandemic debt overhangs, structural unemployment and large net financial outflows. Then the US and Israel launched their war on Iran, throwing the Middle East into turmoil, halting traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and compounding inflationary pressures. Now, inflation has reached double-digit rates in some African countries.