The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in a report released on Wednesday announced that the economy of Sub-Saharan countries should rise this year. In its World Economic Outlook Update, titled ‘A Weakening Global Expansion’, the Washington-based Fund indicated that economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa should pick up in 2019, forecasting a 3.5 per cent growth for the African continent from the 2.9 per cent recorded in 2018. The International lender also predicted Africa’s economic growth will hit 3.6 per cent in 2020. The Fund suggested that strengthening macroprudential frameworks would address high private debt burdens and balance-sheet currency and maturity mismatches in some economies. Early this month, the IMF announced that global debt had reached an all-time high of $184 tn in nominal terms, the equivalent of 225 per cent of GDP in 2017, warning of “a legacy of excessive debt.”

Source: The North Africa Journal January 24, 2019 13:30 UTC