African economies are expected to grow by an average of 3.4% this year, the African Development Bank said, as the continent recovers from its worst contraction in half a century.
The 54 economies shrank by 2.1% last year, the AfDB said in its 2021 economic outlook report, as the coronavirus crisis disrupted economic activity across the continent.
“The continent-wide projected recovery... does not remove the threat of increasing poverty,” the Abidjan-based AfDB said in the report. An estimated 39 million Africans are likely to slip into extreme poverty as a result of the pandemic, the bank said, after 30 million were pushed into that bracket last year.
