IMF says Nigeria, S/Africa weigh down economic growth in sub-Sahara Africa

The International Monetary Fund ( IMF) said on Tuesday  placed Nigeria and South Africa at the downside of Africa’s economic outlook in the short to medium term.

The Fund also warned that Sub-Saharan African nations are at growing risk of debt distress because of heavy borrowing and gaping deficits, despite an overall uptick in economic growth.

In its economic outlook for the region released in Accra Ghana, the Fund projected the rate of economic expansion would rise to 3.4 per cent this year, up from 2.8 per cent in 2017, boosted by global growth and higher commodity prices.

But it stated that slower growth in South Africa and Nigeria, the continent’s two largest economies weighed on the region-wide average, though the Fund expects growth to pick up in around two-thirds of African nations.

It would be recalled that last month the World Bank, in its World Economic Outlook, effected a massive cut in its projections for Nigeria’s economic growth rate for 2018 to 2.1 percent, down from 2.5 percent and 1.9 percent for 2019, down from 2.8 percent.