Nigeria, South Africa, Angola to drive Africa’s economic activities in 2016 – World Bank

The World Bank on Monday announced the lowering of its 2016 sub-Saharan African growth forecast to 3.3 per cent from 4.4 per cent in October, 2015, citing plunging global commodity prices.
The bank said the commodity price rout, particularly for oil, which fell 67 per cent from June 2014 to December 2015, and a weak global growth were behind the region’s lacklustre performance.
“Overall, growth is projected to pick up in 2017-2018 to 4.5 per cent,” it said in a statement.
It stated that a projected rise in economic activity next year would be driven by economic powerhouses of South Africa, Nigeria and Angola, as commodity prices stabilised.
Nigeria and Angola are the continent’s top two crude oil exporters whose economies have suffered as a result of sharply lower crude prices.
South Africa is also hit by lower platinum, iron ore and coal prices.
“There were some bright spots where growth continued to be robust such as in Cote d’Ivoire, which saw a favourable policy environment and rising investment, as well as oil importers such as Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania,” the World Bank said.
Reuters/NAN.