Recession leaves mark on Africa

The 2010 edition of the African Economic Outlook finds that the global crisis brought a period of relatively high economic growth in Africa to a sudden end. Africa’s GDP growth was slashed from an average of about six per cent in 2006-2008 to 2.5 per cent in 2009. Given the pace of population growth this means that growth of per capita GDP came to a near standstill. Average growth is expected to rebound to 4.5 per cent in 2010 and 5.2 per cent in 2011, although the recession will leave its mark.

 “The good news is that the continent has proved resilient to the crisis. The bad news is that, despite rebounding growth next year, the downturn could make it more difficult for some African countries to meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of people living in poverty by 2015,” said Henri-Bernard Solignac-Lecomte at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.