Low-income African nations, such as Ethiopia, Tanzania, Cameroon and Uganda, will probably grow on average 4.7 percent in 2010, compared with 4.3 percent last year, with growth accelerating to 6.7 percent in 2011, the IMF said.
“In the region’s low-income economies the slowdown in economic activity was more modest, owing to their more limited trade and financial integration,” the IMF said.
The main risks to growth in sub-Saharan Africa are “large swings” in prices for commodities such as oil, a drop in donor aid and political turmoil, especially in West Africa, the IMF said.
[Meles Zenawi, who often addresses the Ethiopian audience with derision, as usual mocked and said the growth would hover around 11%. In reality, he punishes the people mercilessly, to the point of using ‘hunger’ as a weapon to break the will of the people for political change].
The lender praised African nations for raising budget deficits to compensate for a drop in global demand, saying that countercyclical fiscal policy was “a welcome development.”
“As private and external demand begins to recover, countries will need to rebuild fiscal room, turning from the near-term objective of stabilizing output to medium-term considerations” such as investing in infrastructure, the IMF said.
