Africa's average economic growth in 2023 fell to an estimated 3.1 percent, down from 4.1 percent of the previous year, as successive shocks weakened post-pandemic gains, the African Development Bank (AfDB) said in a report released on Thursday, May 30, Xinhua reports. This comes as Rwanda’s economy is projected to grow at 7.8 percent in 2023 and 8.1 percent in 2024, according to the AfDB.

The bank’s latest report, African Economic Outlook 2024, attributed the decrease to such factors as persistently high food and energy prices, weak global demand weighing down export performance, climate change and extreme weather events on agricultural productivity and power generation, and pockets of political instability and conflict in some African countries.

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"Despite the continuing headwinds, 15 countries recorded a growth rate of at least 5 percent in 2023," the report said.

It said that although South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria recorded lower economic rates, more than half of African countries recorded higher economic growth rates in 2023 than in 2022, with six of them -- Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Eswatini, Libya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan -- posting gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates of more than 2 percentage points.

Kevin Chika Urama, the chief economist and vice president for the bank's Economic Governance and Knowledge Management, said that despite the global challenges that tested economies worldwide, the African continent is projected to remain resilient.

He said that GDP growth for Africa is projected to rise to 3.7 percent in 2024 and 4.3 percent in 2025, as most of the effects weighing on growth in 2023 fade away.

The projected rebound in Africa's average growth will be led by East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa, Urama said.