The economy of Cameroon was one of the most prosperous in Africa for a quarter of a century after independence. The drop in commodity prices for its principal exports —petroleum, cocoa and cotton — in the mid-1980s, combined with an overvalued currency and economic mismanagement, led to a decade-long recession. Real per capita GDP fell by more than 60% from 1986 to 1994; the current account and fiscal deficits widened, foreign debt grew. Yet because of its oil reserves and favorable agricultural conditions, Cameroon still has one of the best-endowed primary commodity economies in sub-Saharan Africa. Cameroon’s financial system is the largest in the CEMAC region. Access to financial services is limited for SMEs. Aside from a traditional tendency for banks to prefer dealing with large, established companies, determining factors are found in interest rates for loans to SMEs being capped at 15 percent and being taxed; as of 2006, bank loans to SMEs hardly reached 15 percent of total outstanding loans.

Less than 5 percent of Cameroonians have access to a bank account. While the microfinance sector is becoming important, its development is hampered by a loose regulatory and supervisory framework for microfinance institutions; the banking sector is concentrated and dominated by foreign commercial banks. 6 out of the 11 largest commercial banks are foreign-owned, the three largest banks hold more than 50 percent of total financial system assets. While foreign banks display good solvency ratios, small domestic banks are in a much weaker position, their capitalization is well below the average of banks in the CEMAC region and their profits are close to 2 percent, compared to 20 percent for foreign banks in the country. This is explained by the high levels of non-performing loans, which reached 12 percent in 2007, leading to most banks holding large amounts of excess reserves as a percentage of deposits and large levels of unutilized liquidity. In 2018, Cameroon's financial system is being requested by the International Monetary Fund to increase its tax base to cover the losses from the North-West and South-West Cameroon's regions instabilities, the loss of oil revenue, the failure to deliver on port facilities, the decline in oil production from mature oil fields.

Cameroon became an oil-producing country in 1977. Claiming to want to make reserves for difficult times, the authorities manage "off-budget" oil revenues in total opacity. Several billion dollars are thus diverted to the benefit of oil companies and regime officials; the influence of France and its 9,000 nationals in Cameroon remains considerable. African Affairs magazine noted in the early 1980s that they "continue to dominate all key sectors of the economy, much as they did before independence. French nationals control 55% of the modern sector of the Cameroonian economy and their control over the banking system is total. Recent signs, are encouraging; as of March 1998, Cameroon's fifth IMF program — a 3-year enhanced structural adjustment program approved in August 1997 — is on track. Cameroon has rescheduled its Paris Club debt at favorable terms. GDP has grown by about 5% a year beginning in 1995. There is cautious optimism; the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility signed by the IMF and Government of Cameroon calls for greater macroeconomic planning and financial accountability.

France is Cameroon's main trading source of private investment and foreign aid. Cameroon has a bilateral accord with the United States. USA investment in Cameroon is most of it in the oil sector. Inflation has been brought back under control. Cameroon aims at becoming emerging by 2035; the government embarked upon a series of economic reform programs supported by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund beginning in the late 1980s. Many of these measures have been painful; the CFA franc — the common currency of Cameroon and 13 other African states — was devalued by 50% in January 1994. The government failed to meet the conditions of the first four IMF programs; this is a chart of trend of gross domestic product of Cameroon at market prices estimated by the International Monetary Fund with figures in millions of Central African CFA Francs. The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2017. Cameroon Transport in Cameroon United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Economy of Cameroon at Curlie Cameroon latest trade data on ITC Trade Map World Bank Summary Trade Statistics Cameroon

The 2014 Dubai Tennis Championships was a 500 event on the 2014 ATP World Tour and a Premier event on the 2014 WTA Tour. Both of the events took place at the Aviation Club Tennis Centre in United Arab Emirates; the women's tournament took place February 17 to 22, while the men's tournament took place from February 24 to March 1. * per team Rankings are as of February 17, 2014. The following players received wildcards into the singles main draw: Somdev Devvarman Malek Jaziri James WardThe following players received entry from the qualifying draw: Marius Copil Thiemo de Bakker Lukáš Lacko Adrian Ungur Juan Martín del Potro During the tournament Nikolay Davydenko Mikhail Youzhny Rankings are as of February 17, 2014; the following pairs received wildcards into the doubles main draw: Omar Alawadhi / Hamad Abbas Janahi Novak Djokovic / Carlos Gómez-HerreraThe following pair received entry from the qualifying draw: Nikolay Davydenko / Victor Hănescu During the tournament Juan Martín del Potro Rankings are as of February 10, 2014.

The following players received wildcards into the singles main draw: Nadia Petrova Serena Williams Venus WilliamsThe following players received entry from the qualifying draw: Annika Beck Flavia Pennetta Karolína Plíšková Maryna Zanevska Before the tournament Svetlana Kuznetsova → replaced by Alizé Cornet Simona Halep Rankings are as of February 10, 2014. The following pairs received wildcards into the doubles main draw: Kirsten Flipkens / Petra Kvitová Flavia Pennetta / Samantha Stosur Serena Williams / Venus Williams Before the tournament Kristýna Plíšková Roger Federer def. Tomáš Berdych, 3–6, 6–4, 6–3 Venus Williams def. Alizé Cornet, 6–3, 6–0 Rohan Bopanna / Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi def. Daniel Nestor / Nenad Zimonjić, 6–4, 6–3 Alla Kudryavtseva / Anastasia Rodionova def. Raquel Kops-Jones / Abigail Spears, 6–2, 5–7, Official website

Woodhouse Grammar School was a secondary school in Woodhouse Road, North Finchley, in the London Borough of Barnet. The school was in operation from 1944 to 1978 at which time it ceased to be a secondary school and became Woodhouse College; the first mention of buildings on the site of Woodhouse Grammar School is in 1655, in the probate of the will of Allen Bent of Friern Barnet. The will, dated 15 January 1655, refers to three tenements "called'The Woodhouses' that are now in the several occupations of William Moore, William Amery and Abraham Wager"... In 1743 James Patterson, a turner, of the Parish of St George the Martyr in Middlesex came into possession of "all those two messuages called or known as the Woodhouses with one ground room under the said messuages"; these two tenements came into the possession of Thomas Collins through his wife on the death of her father James Patterson in 1765. They had married on 19 November 1761; the third tenement was in the possession of John Bateman, a wine merchant, who in The List of Finchley Freeholders lives at "Woodhouses".

In his will, proved in 1776, he orders his executors to sell his house and gardens as soon as possible. Thomas Collins became possessor of all three Woodhouses. By 1754 at least one of the buildings was called Wood House as seen on John Rocque’s Map of Middlesex. A mansion was built there between 1784 and 1798, becoming the centre of an estate created at the inclosure of Finchley Common. At the inclosure in 1816, the Marquis of Buckingham and Sir William Curtiss, major local landlords, were allocated 45 acres and 39 acres respectively. Thomas Collins bought both their allocations. A blue plaque commemorating Thomas Collins hangs on a wall outside the present college office. On the death of Thomas Collins in 1830, Woodhouse passed to his great niece Margaret Collins Jennings. There was a marriage settlement between Margaret Collins Jennings of Finchley and William Lambert Esq. of Monmouth which included Wood Houses in Finchley and much other property. They were married on 23 September 1830. William Lambert was a J.

P. for Middlesex. Sometime between 1841 and 1860 the separate house was pulled down. From the census returns, in 1841 William Lambert and his wife Margaret were living at Wood Houses – his occupation was given as independent; the house and estate was sold to G W Wright-Ingle whose family came from St Ives in Huntingdonshire. Wright-Ingle reconstructed and enlarged the house in 1889 employing the architect E W Robb of St Ives; the down pipes were still marked 1889 when last inspected in 2012. From the plans the lobby and the front and back rooms of the west end of the house were not rebuilt. G W Wright Ingle’s wife had a daughter at Wood House on 27 September 1891 according to the London Standard dated 1 October 1891. In 1910 the house came into the possession of the Busvine family according to Percy Reboul. Middlesex County Council agreed to buy the house in 1915 but only "when peace was restored" which meant that the building suffered some neglect before becoming a school in 1922; the school was opened as The Woodhouse School in 1922 by Middlesex County Council, becoming Woodhouse Grammar School following the 1944 Education Act.

It remained as a state-funded grammar school until it closed in 1978 and re-opened as a state sixth form college. The change was triggered by the introduction of the 1976 Education Act, which killed off grammar schools in favour of non-selective comprehensives; the Conservative Member of Parliament for Finchley, Margaret Thatcher, was Education Secretary in the Conservative government from 1970 to 1974 and a vocal supporter of grammar schools during a time of rising support for a change to non-selection at age 11. However, when the Labour government was elected in 1974 and passed the 1976 Education Act, the writing was on the wall for Woodhouse; as the newly-elected Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition, Mrs Thatcher continued to oppose the move to comprehensives and rejected plans for Woodhouse to merge with the local secondary modern school to create the "Friern Barnet & Woodhouse Comprehensive School". Her opposition ensured that the school retained its selective status, albeit as a sixth-form college.

The School Motto was "Cheerfulness with Industry", conjuring up an image of pupils working hard but smiling through. Much a motif of the post-war era and indeed of England itself; the old school coat of arms, displaying this motto, is still displayed above the stage in the college hall. The names of the forty-seven former pupils who died during the Second World War are recorded in a hand illuminated Roll of Honour which hangs at the foot of the main staircase near the front entrance to the existing college; the Roll of Honour records the names of the four houses of the old grammar schoolThere were four School Houses, each with a designated colour - Gordon, Livingstone and Scott, remembering the historical British hero-figures of General Gordon. David Livingstone, Florence Nightingale and Robert Falcon Scott; the school tie was patterned with two yellow vertical stripes, with a middle stripe in the wearer's house colour. So if you were in Gordon house you had three yellow stripes; the original School Song celebrates the motto and the four houses: "By field and track, by pitch and court, Hygiea be