Sub-Saharan Africa poised for faster economic growth – WB

Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are expected to register faster economic growth despite existing challenges such as drought and fuel crisis, the World Bank said in a new report released on Wednesday. The Bank said that overall capital flows to Sub-Saharan Africa rose by 8 billion U.S. dollars in 2011 to 48.2 billion dollars. The report, Africa’s Pulse, a twice-yearly analysis of the issues shaping Africa’s economic prospects, said foreign direct investment, which accounts for about 77 percent of all capital flows to the region, contributed to about 83 percent of the increase. “Economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa remains strong and is poised for lift-off after growing at 4.9 percent in 2011, just shy of the pre-crisis average of 5 percent,” the report which was received in Nairobi said. Excluding South Africa, which accounts for over a third of the region’s GDP, growth in the rest of region was 5.9 percent, making it one of the fastest growing developing regions, according to a new World Bank report on Africa’s economy. Bank’s Vice President for Africa Obiageli Ezekwesili said many would be right to think that the prospects for Africa are terrible in view of the turbulence that has beset the global economy in the last five years. But as the Africa’s Pulse shows, she said, African economies continue to show resilience and some of the fastest-growing economies in the world are now in Africa. “The urgent agenda remains sustaining the macroeconomic reforms while accelerating the structural reforms that will deliver the right quality of growth that creates jobs and raises incomes on the continent,” Ezekwesili said. According to the report, over a third of countries in the region attained growth rates of at least 6 percent, with another 40 percent growing between 4 - 6 percent. Among fast-growing economies in 2011 were resource-rich countries such as Ghana, Mozambique, and Nigeria, as well as other economies such as Rwanda and Ethiopia, all posting growth rates of at least 7 percent in 2011. The region is increasingly being recognised as an investment destination, including from private equity investors.