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On a negative note, the UN report projects that economic growth in Africa will be 3.3 percent, down from the 3.5 percent forecast at the beginning of 2024. It cited weak prospects in the continent’s largest economies – Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa – along with 7 African countries “in debt distress” and 13 others at “high risk of debt distress”.
The world economy is now projected to grow by 2.7 percent this year, up from the 2.4 percent it forecasted in its January report – and by 2.8 percent in 2025.
Shantanu Mukherjee, the director of the UN’s Economic Analysis and Policy Division, at a news conference launching the report, sounded guarded optimism, but with important caveats. He also cautioned about interest rates ruling high for longer time, debt repayment challenges, continuing geopolitical tensions, and climate risks, especially for the world’s poorest countries and small island nations. These factors, he underscored, could affect the pace of growth of the world economy.
On a negative note, the UN report projects that economic growth in Africa will be 3.3 percent, down from the 3.5 percent forecast at the beginning of 2024. It cited weak prospects in the continent’s largest economies – Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa – along with 7 African countries “in debt distress” and 13 others at “high risk of debt distress”.
The report also flagged that the lower forecast for Africa is particularly worrying because Africa is home to about 430 million (people) living in extreme poverty and close to 40 percent share of the global undernourished population. Further, it said that two-thirds of the high-inflation countries listed are also in Africa.
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Mukherjee said while inflation was down from its 2023 peak, it remained “a symptom of the underlying fragility” of the global economy. Globally, energy and food prices have been inching upward in recent months.
