A twice-yearly World Bank Group analytical publication on African countries’ economic performance says Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is decelerating.
The second edition of Africa’s Pulse report for this year revealed that some African countries, including Ghana, continue to face headwinds from low commodity prices, tight financial conditions and domestic policy uncertainty.
Also, it mentioned that oil exporters in Sub-Saharan Africa generally continue to experience slippages in economic growth due to shocks from the decline in commodity prices.
Punam Chuhan-Pole, World Bank Lead Economist for Africa, who addressed journalists across the continent via teleconferencing, highlighted the limited diversification of African economies on the continent.
The report noted that economic growth within sub-Saharan Africa was expected to fall further to 1.6 percent in 2016 from the projected 3 percent.
The 1.6 percent projected growth was said to be the lowest level of growth in over two decades, while the worst decline in aggregate growth was attributed to challenging economic conditions in the region’s largest economies such as Nigeria, South Africa and Angola.
It further mentioned that although a quarter of African countries were showing some resilience, economic activity had been notably weak across oil exporters.
“Adjustment to low commodities has been limited in several commodity exporters, even as vulnerabilities have mounted. I therefore think the adjustments efforts should include measures to strengthen domestic resource mobilization so as to reduce overdependence on resource-based revenues.”
Nigeria’s GDP contracted during the first half of the year due to low oil revenues and a fall in manufacturing, among others, whereas in South Africa, the economy contracted a little in the first quarter, before rebounding in the second quarter due to an increase in mining and manufacturing output.
The report has however projected a recovery in the GDP growth of the sub-Saharan real GDP growth at 2.9 percent next year after which it is expected to rise moderately to 3.6 percent in 2018.
The report bemoaned the neglect of the continent’s agriculture sector for a long period of time.
Owing to the development, the World Bank’s Chief Economist for Africa, Albert Zeufack, has appealed for ever-increasing farming output in countries since improved agriculture holds the key to altering economies in Sub-Saharan Africa.
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