The World Bank has predicted a 5.3% increase in sub-Saharan Africa’s economic growth next year, up from a previous forecast of 5.2%, with strong private and public investment underpinning the region’s robust performance.
According to the World Bank’s bi-annual ‘Africa’s Pulse’ report, quoted by the local media here Tuesday, the bank raised its forecast for 2014 from the 5.1% projected earlier this year.
The region is expected to grow 5.5% in 2015, up from the previous forecast of 5.2%.
Africa’s Pulse report is a twice-yearly analysis of the issues shaping Africa’s economic prospects.
According to the report, growth for this year is forecast at 4.9%, higher than last year’s 4.2 %. The figure is more than double the bank’s 2.3% estimate for global growth in 2013, underscoring the attractiveness of the continent for investors.
Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa remains strong with a growth forecast of 4.9 per cent in 2013.
Almost a third of countries in the region are growing at 6% and more, and African countries are now among the fastest-growing countries in the world.
The growth is largely driven by rising private investment in the region and an increase in remittances from Diaspora, now worth US$33 billion a year, thereby supporting household incomes.
Strong government investments and higher production in the mineral resources, agriculture and service sectors are also supporting the bulk of the economic growth.
But in spite of these growths, the report noted that poverty and inequality remain “unacceptably high and the pace of reduction unacceptably slow”.
“Sustaining Africa’s strong growth over a longer term while significantly reducing poverty and strengthening people’s resilience to adversity may prove difficult because of the many internal and external uncertainties African countries faces,” World Bank Vice-President for Africa Makhtar Diop said.
