Africa's Pulse, No. 22, October 2020 : An Analysis of Issues Shaping Africa’s Economic Future

COVID-19 has taken a large toll on economic activity in Sub-Saharan Africa, putting a decade of hard-won economic progress at risk. The pandemic is pushing the region into its first recession in 25 years. In 2020, GDP per capita is expected to contract by 6.5 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa and by the...

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Main Authors:	Zeufack, Albert G., Calderon, Cesar, Kambou, Gerard, Kubota, Megumi, Cantu Canales, Catalina, Korman, Vijdan
Format:	Serial
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2020
Subjects:	ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC OUTLOOK MACROECONOMIC POLICY CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT FISCAL POLICY INFRASTRUCTURE METAL EXPORTS OIL PRICES PUBLIC DEBT RECOVERY MEASURES PANDEMIC RESPONSE TRADE IMPACT WELFARE IMPACT
Online Access:	https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/692551602223646754/full-report http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34587

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recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-345872021-04-23T14:02:03Z Africa's Pulse, No. 22, October 2020 : An Analysis of Issues Shaping Africa’s Economic Future Zeufack, Albert G. Calderon, Cesar Kambou, Gerard Kubota, Megumi Cantu Canales, Catalina Korman, Vijdan ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC OUTLOOK MACROECONOMIC POLICY CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT FISCAL POLICY INFRASTRUCTURE METAL EXPORTS OIL PRICES PUBLIC DEBT RECOVERY MEASURES PANDEMIC RESPONSE TRADE IMPACT WELFARE IMPACT COVID-19 has taken a large toll on economic activity in Sub-Saharan Africa, putting a decade of hard-won economic progress at risk. The pandemic is pushing the region into its first recession in 25 years. In 2020, GDP per capita is expected to contract by 6.5 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa and by the end of 2021, it’s likely to have regressed back to its 2007’s level. As a consequence, COVID-19 could push up to 43 million people into extreme poverty in Africa, erasing at least five years of progress in fighting poverty. The road to recovery will be long, steep, and must be paved with sound economic policies. Countries need to reconstitute fiscal space to help finance programs that can stimulate recovery. Better debt transparency and management, better service delivery, civil society engagement and less corruption will be critical. Ultimately, sustained recovery will depend on how fast African countries prioritize policy actions and investment that address the challenge of creating more, better and inclusive jobs. These policy priorities, in turn, operate through three critical (an inter-related) channels: the digital transformation, the sectoral reallocation, and the the spatial integration. Countries must expand digital infrastructure and make connectivity affordable, reliable and universal across Africa. Shifting resources towards non-traditional economic sectors with higher productivity, lower volatility and greater value addition, fully leveraging the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will be equally critical. Finally, fostering the reallocation of resources from less to more efficient job-creating locations through enhanced rural-urban, inland-coastal connectivity will be key to jobs and economic transformation. Interestingly, number of countries, especially in the East African Community and in the West African Monetary Union are seizing the opportunity of the crisis to accelerate these reforms. 2020-10-06T19:59:39Z 2020-10-06T19:59:39Z 2020-10-07 Serial https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/692551602223646754/full-report 978-1-4648-1648-2 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34587 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Publication Africa Sub-Saharan Africa
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
topic	ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC OUTLOOK MACROECONOMIC POLICY CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT FISCAL POLICY INFRASTRUCTURE METAL EXPORTS OIL PRICES PUBLIC DEBT RECOVERY MEASURES PANDEMIC RESPONSE TRADE IMPACT WELFARE IMPACT
spellingShingle	ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC OUTLOOK MACROECONOMIC POLICY CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT FISCAL POLICY INFRASTRUCTURE METAL EXPORTS OIL PRICES PUBLIC DEBT RECOVERY MEASURES PANDEMIC RESPONSE TRADE IMPACT WELFARE IMPACT Zeufack, Albert G. Calderon, Cesar Kambou, Gerard Kubota, Megumi Cantu Canales, Catalina Korman, Vijdan Africa's Pulse, No. 22, October 2020 : An Analysis of Issues Shaping Africa’s Economic Future
geographic_facet	Africa Sub-Saharan Africa
description	COVID-19 has taken a large toll on economic activity in Sub-Saharan Africa, putting a decade of hard-won economic progress at risk. The pandemic is pushing the region into its first recession in 25 years. In 2020, GDP per capita is expected to contract by 6.5 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa and by the end of 2021, it’s likely to have regressed back to its 2007’s level. As a consequence, COVID-19 could push up to 43 million people into extreme poverty in Africa, erasing at least five years of progress in fighting poverty. The road to recovery will be long, steep, and must be paved with sound economic policies. Countries need to reconstitute fiscal space to help finance programs that can stimulate recovery. Better debt transparency and management, better service delivery, civil society engagement and less corruption will be critical. Ultimately, sustained recovery will depend on how fast African countries prioritize policy actions and investment that address the challenge of creating more, better and inclusive jobs. These policy priorities, in turn, operate through three critical (an inter-related) channels: the digital transformation, the sectoral reallocation, and the the spatial integration. Countries must expand digital infrastructure and make connectivity affordable, reliable and universal across Africa. Shifting resources towards non-traditional economic sectors with higher productivity, lower volatility and greater value addition, fully leveraging the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will be equally critical. Finally, fostering the reallocation of resources from less to more efficient job-creating locations through enhanced rural-urban, inland-coastal connectivity will be key to jobs and economic transformation. Interestingly, number of countries, especially in the East African Community and in the West African Monetary Union are seizing the opportunity of the crisis to accelerate these reforms.
format	Serial
author	Zeufack, Albert G. Calderon, Cesar Kambou, Gerard Kubota, Megumi Cantu Canales, Catalina Korman, Vijdan
author_facet	Zeufack, Albert G. Calderon, Cesar Kambou, Gerard Kubota, Megumi Cantu Canales, Catalina Korman, Vijdan
author_sort	Zeufack, Albert G.
title	Africa's Pulse, No. 22, October 2020 : An Analysis of Issues Shaping Africa’s Economic Future
title_short	Africa's Pulse, No. 22, October 2020 : An Analysis of Issues Shaping Africa’s Economic Future
title_full	Africa's Pulse, No. 22, October 2020 : An Analysis of Issues Shaping Africa’s Economic Future
title_fullStr	Africa's Pulse, No. 22, October 2020 : An Analysis of Issues Shaping Africa’s Economic Future
title_full_unstemmed	Africa's Pulse, No. 22, October 2020 : An Analysis of Issues Shaping Africa’s Economic Future
title_sort	africa's pulse, no. 22, october 2020 : an analysis of issues shaping africa’s economic future
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2020
url	https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/692551602223646754/full-report http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34587
_version_	1764481220843929600

Africa's Pulse, No. 22, October 2020 : An Analysis of Issues Shaping Africa’s Economic Future

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