Abstract
The five Regional Economic Outlooks published biannually by the IMF cover Asia and Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Western Hemisphere. In each volume, recent economic developments and prospects for the region are discussed as a whole, as well as for specific countries. The reports include key data for countries in the region. Each report focuses on policy developments that have affected economic performance in the region, and discusses key challenges faced by policymakers. The near-term outlook, key risks, and their related policy challenges are analyzed throughout the reports, and current issues are explored, such as when and how to withdraw public interventions in financial systems globally while maintaining a still-fragile economic recovery.These indispensable surveys are the product of comprehensive intradepartmental reviews of economic developments that draw primarily on information the IMF staff gathers through consultation with member countries.
Although sub-Saharan African countries differ greatly in their geographical and physical conditions, weather patterns, and cultural heritage, the similarity of their economic structures is striking. In particular, in nearly all these countries the agricultural sector remains dominant, and its well-being is crucial to the economy. It provides the earnings that support the industrial sector in its take-off into economic growth and the bulk of exports. Indeed, few countries have achieved sustained economic growth without first, or simultaneously, developing their agricultural sector. Nevertheless, over the 1970s the rate of growth of agricultural production in many of these sub-Saharan African countries declined from even the slow rates of the 1960s (Table 1).
Abstract
Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa remains robust and is expected to pick up in 2014. After expanding by 4.9 percent in 2013, output looks set to expand by about 5½ percent this year. The region’s recent strong period of economic performance thus looks set to be sustained, supported by stronger global economic activity spurred by the improved outlook for the advanced economies. Importantly, the projections assume that the impact on the region of the expected growth slowdown in emerging markets and tightening global monetary conditions will be limited. Should these risks materialize, however, there would be consequential implications for growth in many countries in the region: slower emerging market growth would be certain to adversely impact export demand and commodity prices, while disorderly market conditions as unconventional monetary policies are unwound could trigger markedly higher financing costs. Beyond these latent external headwinds, more home-grown risks are also threatening growth prospects in several countries in the region. In a few cases policy missteps, such as large fiscal imbalances, threaten to undermine the hard-won macroeconomic gains of recent years that have supported growth. More problematic still, in a number of countries conflict is exacting a heavy toll, most acutely so in the Central African Republic and South Sudan. Against this background, the challenge for policy remains the steady pursuit of development objectives while promptly addressing emerging sources of macroeconomic vulnerability.