Africa's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will grow by around 4% this year and next despite multiple challenges, and above the world rate of up to 3.2%, estimates the African Development Bank (AfDB)..

"Despite a confluence of multiple shocks, growth in the five African regions was positive in 2022 and the outlook for 2023 and 24 should be stable," said AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina at the launch of the first edition of the biannual African Macroeconomic Performance and Outlook report, quoted by Spanish news agency Efe and Lusa.

"The slowdown in global demand, tighter financial conditions and disruptions in supply chains have had different impacts on the various African economies," added Adesina.

According to the report, Africa's estimated average GDP growth slowed to 3.8% in 2022, down from 4.8% in 2021, in a context marked by the Covid-19 crisis and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

However, "the continent's five regions remain resilient and with a stable medium-term outlook," said the multilateral financial institution, based in Abidjan, the economic capital of Côte d'Ivoire.

The AfDB expects the five best-performing economies on the continent before the pandemic to record average growth in 2023 and 2024 of more than 5.5%, led by Rwanda (7.9%), followed by Côte d'Ivoire (7.1%), Benin (6.4%), Ethiopia (6.0%) and Tanzania (5.6%).

Other countries will also grow by more than 5.5% in this period, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (6.8%), Gambia (6.4%), Mozambique (6.5%), Niger (9.6%), Senegal (9.4%) and Togo (6.3%).

On the other hand, of the African regions, it was Central Africa that achieved the fastest growth on the continent in 2022, with 4.7%, compared to 3.6% the previous year, thanks to "favorable commodity prices".

On the other hand, Southern Africa, which includes Angola and Mozambique, had the lowest growth, 2.5% last year, slowing down from the 4.3% growth in 2021 due to rising interest rates and persistent interruptions due to the deep energy crisis in South Africa.

Despite the positive projections, the report, according to Efe, also warns of risks such as "rising food and energy prices, tightening global financial conditions and the associated increase in debt servicing costs", as well as the cross-cutting issue of climate change.

To meet these challenges, the AfDB calls for measures such as "timely and aggressive" adjustments to monetary policy in inflation-hit countries or the strengthening of intra-African trade, especially in the manufacture of products, to "protect economies from volatile commodity prices".