World Bank: Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa to fall by 3.3% in 2020

10 Oct World Bank: Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa to fall by 3.3% in 2020

Albert Zeufack, World Bank’s chief economist for Africa regions, has said this at the launch of the latest Africa Pulse report, SSA bi-annual macroeconomic analysis that growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries may shrink by 3.3 percent in 2020, pushing the region into its first recession in 25 years.
He said: “What is clear from our report is that we have a sharp contraction in economic activities. The COVID-19 has taken a large toll on African economies and it’s threatening to erase a decade of hard earned economic progress in the continent,” Zeufack said.
“Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita will record a decline of close to six percent in 2020 and by 2021, GDP per capita would have decreased to the level where it was in 2007, that’s 13 years of progress completely erased.
“A number of African countries, in fact, most of them, will emerge from the crisis with deeper fiscal deficit and debt burden.
“Fiscal deficit will increase by 3.5 percent across the continent. Debt is likely to reach 67 percent in 2021 and that makes it dangerous.”