Africa shows economic resilience

ABIDJAN – DESPITE global and regional headwinds, Africa continues to demonstrate remarkable economic resilience, maintaining its position as a global growth frontier.

This is the central finding of the 2026 Africa Macroeconomic Performance and Outlook (MEO) report, released by the African Development Bank Group on 30 March 2026 at its headquarters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

The report highlights that Africa outpaced the global average in 2025, with real gross domestic product (GDP) growth surging to 4.2 percent, up from 3.1 percent in 2024, comfortably exceeding the world average of 3.1 percent.

Growth was “broad-based”, with 22 African countries exceeding 5 percent and six surpassing 7 percent, driven by easing inflation, improved macroeconomic management, and favourable agricultural conditions.

Key highlights from the report include Africa’s real GDP growth is projected to stabilise at 4.3 percent in 2026, rising to 4.5 percent in 2027, twelve of the twenty fastest-growing economies globally in 2025 were African.

It also revealed that East Africa remained the continent’s fastest-growing region, posting 6.4 percent GDP growth, led by Ethiopia (9.8 percent), Rwanda (7.5 percent), and Uganda (6.4 percent) while the GDP per capita growth improved from 0.9 percent in 2023 to 1.9 percent in 2025, though levels remain insufficient to drive rapid poverty reduction.

It also stated that an average inflation declined to 13.6 percent in 2025 from 21.8 percent in 2024, with further reductions expected in 2026 and 2027 while foreign direct investment rebounded sharply in 2024, rising over 75 percent to reach $97 billion.

The report noted that remittance flows increased by more than 14 percent in 2024 to $104.6 billion, surpassing foreign portfolio investment as Africa’s largest source of external non-debt financing.

In his opening remarks, the President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr Sidi Ould Tah, stated that the continent faces an “important moment when the world is changing, not always in favour of the African continent.”

Citing rising geopolitical fragmentation, trade tensions, and declining global development finance flows, he noted that the Bank Group’s Four Cardinal Points agenda “each speaks directly to the challenges this Macro Economic Outlook report has identified and quantified.”

Dr Ould Tah added that the MEO analysis and projections “were prepared before the current crisis” in the Middle East began, and that the Bank Group, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is assessing potential implications for Africa.

The Bank Group Chief Economist and Vice President for Economic Governance and Knowledge Management, Prof Kevin Urama, expressed confidence in Africa’s resilience:

“Africa has held strong in previous shocks, and has the capacity to bounce back after, provided we do not panic and we instead apply the right policy levers. In our estimates, if the crisis lasts beyond three months, it might cause a dip of 0.2 percentage point in Africa’s economic growth rate in 2026.”

An expert-led panel, including Souleymane Diarrassouba (Minister of Planning and Development, Côte d’Ivoire), Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan (Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Liberia), Prof Mthuli Ncube (Minister of Finance, Zimbabwe), Dr Retselisitsoe Matlanyane (Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Lesotho), and Mrs Aminata Toure (International Monetary Fund Resident Representative, Côte d’Ivoire), emphasised sustaining reforms in domestic resource mobilisation, digitalisation, and deepening local capital markets as critical to strengthening Africa’s resilience.

Dr Ould Tah described the MEO series as a demonstration of “the Bank’s commitment to provide our member countries, our partners and our investors with the most rigorous, timely and actionable analysis.”

Africa, the report concludes, is poised to remain a global engine of growth, drawing on lessons from past shocks to navigate current and future challenges.

– CAJ News