Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President Of The African Development Bank
The African Development Bank (AfDB) is projecting a 3.3 per cent growth of the country’s economy in 2023.
This is above the government’s forecast of 2.8 per cent, the World Bank’s 2.7 per cent and the International Monetary Fund’s 2.8 per cent.
This was contained in the AfDB’s 2023 Macroeconomic Performance and Outlook Report.
It said the country’s expected Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate was among 25 out of the 52 African economies that would record weak GDP in 2023.
It further indicated that Libya would become the fastest-growing economy in Africa with a growth rate of 12.9 per cent while Equatorial Guinea would have the weakest growing economy with -7.3 per cent of GDP.
The report further said despite significant headwinds, Africa’s real GDP growth was projected to stabilise at 4 per cent in 2023–24, 0.2 percentage points higher than the 3.8 per cent recorded in 2022.
The AfDB, however, warned that Africa’s stable growth outlook was, however, threatened by several challenges, as the continent continued to deal with a confluence of overlapping shocks, which include inter alia, ripple effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that continue to disrupt Africa’s and global supply chains, tightening of global financial conditions and the associated increase in domestic debt service costs; and lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, among others.
“Despite the confluence of multiple shocks, growth across all five African regions was positive in 2022 and the outlook for 2023–24 is projected to be stable,” the report said.
In West Africa, the report indicated that growth was estimated to have slowed to 3.6 per cent in 2022 from 4.4 per cent in 2021, reflecting decelerations in Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria.
For resource-intensive economies, the report stressed that average growth for this group could inch higher, to 3.0 per cent in 2023, as market conditions improve.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri