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Africa has dominated the list of the world’s 20 fastest-growing economies in 2024, according to information established by the African Development Bank (AfDB) in its macroeconomic report.
The Macroeconomic Performance and Outlook (MEO) report released on Friday, showed that the medium-term growth outlook for the continent’s five regions was slowly improving, a pointer to the continued resilience of Africa’s economies.
Overall, real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for the continent is expected to average 3.8 percent and 4.2 percent in 2024 and 2025, respectively.
“This is higher than projected global averages of 2.9 percent and 3.2 percent. The continent is set to remain the second-fastest-growing region after Asia,” the report stated.
The top 11 African countries projected to experience strong economic performance forecast are Niger (11.2 percent), Senegal (8.2 percent) and Libya (7.9 percent).
Others were Rwanda (7.2 percent), Cote d’Ivoire (6.8 percent), Ethiopia (6.7 percent), Benin (6.4 percent), Djibouti (6.2 percent), Tanzania (6.1 percent), Togo (six percent), and Uganda at six percent.
AfDB Group president, Akinwumi Adesina, in his comment on the report called for larger pools of financing and several policy interventions to further boost Africa’s growth.
Adesina acknowledged that despite the challenging global and regional economic environment, 15 African countries had posted output expansions of more than five percent.
He emphasised that fiscal deficits had improved, as faster-than-expected recovery from the pandemic helped shore up revenue.
“This has led to a stabilisation of the average fiscal deficit at 4.9 percent in 2023, like 2022, but significantly less than the 6.9 percent average fiscal deficit of 2020.
“The stabilisation is also due to the fiscal consolidation measures, especially in countries with elevated risks of debt distress,” Adesina said.
He, however, cautioned that with the global economy mired in uncertainty, the fiscal positions of the African continent would continue to be vulnerable to global shocks.
Presenting the key findings of the report, the Bank’s Chief Economist and Vice President, Kevin Urama, said growth in Africa’s top-performing economies had benefitted from a range of factors.
Urama explained that these included declining commodity dependence through economic diversification, increasing strategic investment in key growth sectors and rising both public and private consumption, as well as positive developments in key export markets.
“Africa’s economic growth is projected to regain moderate strength as long as the global economy remains resilient, disinflation continues, investment in infrastructure projects remains buoyant, and progress is sustained on debt restructuring and fiscal consolidation,” he said.
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