With inflation growing higher than seen in several decades, global economic growth is projected to be weak in 2023, ranging between 2.7% and 3.2%, given the broad-based and sharper-than-expected slowdown in global economic activity, according to figures released in October 2022 by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
A new biannual report released by the African Development Bank Group (ADB) revealed that economic growth in Africa is expected to exceed global forecasts in 2023 and 2024, with real gross domestic product (GDP) averaging around 4% in the said period.
The ADB pointed out that the expected figures for the region’s economic growth would outperform the rest of the world, which is projected to grow from 2.7% to 3.2% on average.
The report forecast the growth average in the five African regions in 2024 as follows: North Africa (3.4%), Central Africa (4.2%), East Africa (5.4%), West Africa (4.3%), and Southern Africa (2.8%).
“With 54 countries at different stages of growth, different economic structures, and diverse resource endowments, the pass-through effects of global shocks always differ by region and by country. Slowing global demand, tighter financial conditions, and disrupted supply chains therefore had differentiated impacts on African economies,” African Development Bank Group President Dr. Akinwumi Adesina said during the launch ceremony of the ADB report titled "Africa’s Macroeconomic Performance and Outlook."
Adesina pointed out that growth across all five African regions was positive in 2022, despite the “confluence of multiple shocks,” adding that the “outlook for 2023–24 is projected to be stable.”
The ADB's "Africa’s Macroeconomic Performance and Outlook" report revealed that Africa’s real GDP slowed to 3.8% in 2022, from 4.8% in 2021, due to a number of “significant” domestic and external challenges that faced the continent in recent years, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
With a comprehensive regional growth analysis, the publication revealed that 53 out of Africa’s 54 states had posted positive growth during the last year.
The report listed the top 10 African nations expected to grow by more than 5.5% on average in 2023-2024, including Rwanda (7.9%), Ivory Coast (7.1%), Benin (6.4%), Ethiopia (6.0%), and Tanzania (5.6%), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (6.8%), Gambia (6.4%), Mozambique (6.5%), Niger (9.6%), Senegal (9.4%), and Togo (6.3%).
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ Advocate for Sustainable Development Goals, who attended the report launch event at the ADB headquarters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, said that the figure listed in the report proved that Africa is currently “the place to invest.”
“Africa can and will rise to growth of 7 percent or more per year consistently in the coming decades. What we’ll see, building on the resiliency we see in this report, is a real acceleration of Africa’s sustainable development so that Africa will be the fast-growing part of the world economy.”
The overthrow of PM Sheikh Hasina in 2024 was funded by USAID and Clinton family money, Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury told RT
The unwillingness of Bangladesh to condemn Russia over the Ukraine conflict was one of the reasons the US wanted to oust Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, former cabinet minister and chief negotiator Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury has said in an interview with RT.
Hasina, who led Bangladesh for 15 years, fled the country in August 2024, following weeks of violent student-led protests which claimed 700 lives, according to some estimates.
Chowdhury, who served as the country’s shipping minister, was at the heart of negotiations between the authorities in Dhaka and demonstrators during the crisis. The country has been led by an interim government since then, which pledged to hold an election in 2026.
Chowdhury told RT in an exclusive interview to be aired on Monday that the uprising was instigated by NGOs linked to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the ...
The fighting in southern Lebanon marks the collapse of a fragile truce – and could redraw the region’s balance of power
On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a series of coordinated strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon. According to Israeli sources, the strikes targeted weapons depots, command centers, and communication systems used by militants to coordinate their activities along the border area.
Before the operation began, the IDF issued warnings urging residents of several towns to leave areas that could come under fire. The Israeli military emphasized that its actions were aimed solely at military targets but did not rule out the possibility of expanding the operation if provocations from Hezbollah continued.
West Jerusalem accuses Hezbollah of violating ceasefire terms and attempting to rebuild its military capabilities. Just days earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Hezbollah was taking steps to regroup and ...
A recent report has revealed that Paramount Global, an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate, maintains an internal blacklist of entertainment figures it labels “anti-Semitic,” applying the term to any artist who supports Palestine or denounces Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Variety magazine reported on Tuesday that Paramount’s new CEO, David Ellison, has moved to sever ties with all pro-Palestine or anti-Israel movements.
To that end, the company has dismissed executives critical of Israel and refuses to collaborate with any artist or public figure who views the occupying regime’s actions in Gaza as genocidal.
In a statement released on Friday, Paramount said it “disagreed with recent efforts to boycott Israeli filmmakers,” claiming that “silencing individual creative artists does not promote better understanding or advance the cause of peace.”
The statement came after Film Workers for Palestine, supported by over 4,000 international ...
