African Development Bank (AfDB) forecasts 4.5pc growth for Africa economies

African economies will grow 4.5 per cent this year and five per cent in 2016, approaching levels last seen before the 2007 global financial crisis, as economic prospects improve worldwide, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has said.

AfDB estimates Africa’s gross domestic product expanded by 3.9 per cent last year despite sharp falls in international commodity and oil prices, an Ebola epidemic and pockets of political instability and armed conflict. “If you ask me today what I think of events affecting Africa and African economies in 2014, I would say the lesson pertaining is resilience in the face of global adversity,” AfDB’s Chief Economist Steve Kayuzzi-Mugerwa said.