Sub-Saharan Africa is on course for economic growth of 3.1 per cent this year, the World Bank said yesterday. This is marginally slower than it previously forecast but faster than last year’s, thanks to rising commodity prices.
By 2020, growth in the region should pick up to 3.7 per cent, it added.
Sub-Saharan African economies were hit hard by a crash in commodity prices which slowed growth, slashed government revenues and weakened several of the continent’s currencies.
Growth was 1.5 per cent in 2016, the lowest in more than two decades, before rising to an estimated 2.6 per cent last year.
“While Nigeria, South Africa and Angola are expected to see a gradual pick-up in growth, economic expansion will continue at a solid pace in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), and strengthen in most of East Africa,” the bank said in its Africa’s Pulse report for April.
“These forecasts are predicated on the expectations that oil and metals prices will remain stable, expansion in global trade will stay robust, and external financial market conditions will continue to be supportive.”
In January, the World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects report forecast that growth in sub-Saharan Africa would rise to 3.2 per cent this year.
Nigeria, South Africa and Angola make up about 60 per cent of sub-Saharan Africa’s annual GDP.
The bank said Nigeria was experiencing a recovery in oil output but hurdles in non-oil industries and services would be a drag on activity.
“In Angola, the revisions reflect the expectation that a more efficient foreign exchange allocation system, increased availability of foreign exchange due to higher oil prices, rising natural gas production, and improved business sentiment would help support the rebound in economic activity.