Africa's sub-Sahara region is enjoying its strongest economic growth and its lowest inflation in more than three decades, the International Monetary Fund said on Monday. "Recent economic performance shows that sub-Sahara Africa is experiencing its strongest growth and lowest inflation in over 30 years," IMF's senior representative in Africa Sean Nolan said during a presentation in Pretoria.
"There is also a positive outlook for 2008 with GDP (gross domestic product) growth expected to accelerate and inflation to decline further. "The region looks well-poised to sustain its growth momentum," he added.
While the overall economic performance outlook excludes Zimbabwe, where the annual rate of inflation is nearly 8,000 percent, "for obvious mathematical reasons" the "robust expansion cuts across countries." Nolan said growth in the region, which includes 44 countries, "should reach six percent in 2007 and over 6.5 percent in 2008" with oil-exporting countries such as Nigeria and Angola boosting the figures. "The economic expansion is strongest in oil exporters but can cut across all country groups. On the external front, it reflects strong demand for commodities, increased capital inflows, and debt relief.
"Internally, continued progress in stabilising economies and implementing reforms in most countries has helped sustain rising investment and productivity." He said inflation should average 7.5 percent by the end of 2007, "with inflation in 32 out of 44 countries in single digits", and fall by about a percentage point in 2008. A decline in armed conflict across the continent was one of the factors that had increased confidence, he added.