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.”
Volker Turk has warned that efforts to advance reparatory justice are facing resistance in “certain quarters,” and urged countries to back Africa’s push.
Reparatory justice for historical crimes, including colonialism, enslavement, and the trade in enslaved Africans, is crucial to dismantling systemic racism, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has said.
Speaking at the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent on Tuesday, Turk linked present-day discrimination against people from the continent to the enduring legacy of colonialism and enslavement.
”Racism and dehumanizing rhetoric continue to permeate public institutions, communities, and online platforms,” he said, according to the UN Press Service. Turk noted that “digital technologies, including AI, are reproducing and amplifying existing biases against people of African descent.”
The remarks come weeks after the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade “the gravest...
The US VP had to defend President Trump’s Gaza policy at a rally on a Georgia college campus.
US Vice President J.D. Vance was forced to defend Washington’s policy in Gaza after he was booed and heckled at a key MAGA event on Wednesday.
Co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA (TPUSA) is a conservative student group that has long been seen as a strong support base of President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement but is now showing apparent cracks.
Less than 15 minutes into a TPUSA event at the University of Georgia on Wednesday, Vance was interrupted by hecklers over US policy in Gaza, with one audience member shouting, “Jesus Christ does not support genocide!” As he attempted to respond, others shouted, “You’re killing children!” and “You’re bombing children!”
Vance replied by referring to Trump’s achievements as president, including securing a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, something he said the previous administration of Joe Biden failed to do.
“I ...
Sergey Shoigu has cautioned Finland and the Baltic states against allowing Kiev to use their airspace for attacks on Russia.
Russia would have the right to retaliate if Finland and the Baltic states are deliberately allowing Ukrainian drones to pass through their airspace, Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu said on Thursday.
“Recently, there has been an increase in Ukrainian drone strikes against Russia via Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia,” Shoigu told journalists. “As a result, civilians are suffering and significant damage is being caused to civilian infrastructure.”
Either Western air defenses are proving ineffective, or these four countries “deliberately provide their airspace, thereby becoming open accomplices in aggression against Russia,” he added. In the latter case, Moscow has the right to self-defense in response to an “armed attack” under Article 51 of the UN Charter, the security chief stressed.
In recent weeks, Kiev has intensified drone strikes on ...
