Lagos – Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic growth is expected to increase to 6 per cent in 2014, from 5 per cent this year, supported by investment in infrastructure and production capacity, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said.The IMF had predicted in May that the region would grow 5.7 per cent this year and 6.1 per cent in 2014.It said the slight downward revisions were due mainly to weaker global economic conditions, while budget delays in oil producer Angola and oil theft in Africa’s top crude exporter Nigeria also hurt growth.Inflation on the continent is expected to be less than 6 per cent next year, its third year of decline due to benign prospects for food prices and the continuation of prudent monetary policies, the IMF said.“Countries like Kenya and Uganda were in high double digit inflation and are now in single digits, and a lot of it has to do with the conduct of monetary policy,” IMF Africa director Antoinette Sayeh told Reuters after the report’s launch in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos.The fund expects growth to pick up next year. “The improvement relative to 2013 reflects higher global growth, especially in Europe, and other expected favourable domestic conditions,” the IMF said in its regional report, giving Nigeria’s electricity reforms and hopes of improved oil output there as an example.“The main factor behind the continuing underlying growth in most of the region is ... strong domestic demand, especially associated with investment in infrastructure.”
