his week, the World Bank announced that economic activity in sub-Saharan Africa is on
course to contract by 2.8 percent in 2020, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic . According to the World Bank, this contraction will be the most severe on record, with the region’s two biggest economies—Nigeria and South Africa—predicted to contract by 3.2 and 7.1 percent, respectively, this year. Indeed, Reuters reports that South Africa’s manufacturing output fell 5.4 percent year-on-year in March. Overall, economies across the region have been hit hard, with
Zambia predicting it will fall short of projected revenue by 20 percent, necessitating a sweeping budget revision. Though the report also predicts a rebound of growth to a positive 3.1 percent in 2021, it also says that fluctuating commodity prices, looming food crises , and the pandemic—which may trigger cascading consequences for health more broadly and social unrest—all cloud the projected recovery with uncertainty.
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