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Growth in sub-Saharan Africa’s big economies will be mixed into 2022, after a year of recovery from Covid-19 lockdowns, as life slowly returns to normal amid low vaccination rates, a Reuters poll found on Wednesday.
But the pace of recovery is largely positive, according to the poll, conducted from Oct. 19-26.
Growth in Nigeria – Africa’s biggest economy – was expected at 2.7 percent next year from 2.5 percent this year after a negative shock of almost 2 percent last year.
Kenya – east Africa’s biggest economy – will grow 5.3 percent next year from 5.1 percent this year, the poll found. The International Monetary Fund reckons it probably shrank 0.3 percent last year.
Ghana was expected to grow 5.1percent next year from an estimated 4.2 percent . Like South Africa, Zambia was expected to slow, to 2.5 percent next year from an estimate of 3.2percent in 2021.
Weighing on economic recoveries, Africa still needs to inoculate much of its 1.3 billion people, who have had far less access to vaccines than more prosperous regions.
Only about 8.4 percent of Africa’s population has received at least one dose, compared to the global average of 48.7 percent, according to the World Health Organization.
It experienced one of the biggest contractions on the continent last year, which the IMF estimated at 6.4 percent.
The IMF expects sub-Saharan Africa to grow 3.7 percent in 2021 and 3.8 percent in 2022. – Reuters
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