Africa's economic growth to improve in 2007

According to UNECA's latest edition of the Economic Report on Africa (ERA 2007), African economies are forecast to grow by an average of 5.8% in 2007.

From the press release:

The report, titled “Accelerating Africa's Development through Diversification,” notes that African economies continued to sustain the growth momentum of previous years, recording an overall real GDP growth rate of 5.7% in 2006. 28 countries recorded higher economic growth rates in 2006 than 2005.

 

According to the report, Africa's recent growth performance was underpinned by improvements in macroeconomic management in many countries as well as strong global demand for key African export commodities, resulting in high export prices, especially for crude oil, metals and minerals.

 

Factors that are likely to hinder growth in the future include lack of diversification of production and exports as well as instability and vulnerability to shocks, and the increasing spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which undermines labour supply and labour productivity. In addition, inefficient public infrastructure and unreliable energy supply at the national level as well as poor integration of transportation and energy networks at the regional level will continue to undermine the productivity and international competitiveness of African economies.

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