Ethiopia tops Ghana as Africa’s Fastest Growing Economy – IMF

Ethiopia tops Ghana as Africa’s Fastest Growing Economy – IMF

Ethiopia reclaimed its position as the African economy likely to grow the quickest this year after losing the mantle to Ghana, International Monetary Fund data showed.

Ghana, the second-biggest economy in West Africa after Nigeria, should expand 6.3 percent this year, the IMF said in its World Economic Outlook released Tuesday.

That’s lower than the 8.9 percent forecast in October, and is also less than the raised 7.4 percent estimate for Ivory Coast and the prediction for Ethiopia, which was held at 8.5 percent, Bloomberg writes.

Commodities including oil, gold and cocoa are the mainstay of Ghana’s $43 billion economy, which surged 8.5 percent last year as the Sankofa crude field started producing in May.

Like Nigeria, Ghana’s growth booms and busts have been closely tied to oil since it became a producer in 2010.

Meanwhile, Ethiopia has drawn investors including General Electric Co., Johannesburg-based Standard Bank Group and hundreds of Chinese companies.

The IMF increased its forecast for expansion in sub-Saharan Africa to 3.4 percent this year and 3.7 percent the next on the grounds that “the challenging outlook in commodity exporters gradually improves.”

Nigeria, Africa’s most-populous nation and top crude producer, will grow 2.1 percent, matching IMF’s estimate released in the Jan. 22 update to the outlook, while South Africa, the world’s biggest source of platinum, will expand 1.5 percent, more than the 0.9 percent prediction three months ago.

Nigeria and South Africa combine for almost half of the GDO of sub-Saharan Africa, and both countries were plunged into recession recently.