Top 10 African countries with the highest economic growth in 2023 so far
Africa’s growth projection is either on an upward to downward trend, depending on who you ask and when.
However, throughout the year, the idea of Africa experiencing an economic downward spiral, albiet marginally, has been consistent. Be it the World Bank or the IMF, the projection on Africa’s economic figures has been on the declining side.
According to the World Bank’s September Africa Pulse report, economic activity in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is predicted to have further slowed from 3.6 percent in 2022 to 2.5 percent in 2023, which is a downward revision of 0.6 percentage points from the prediction in the report’s April 2023 edition.
The report notes that 28 of the 48 nations in Sub-Saharan Africa have had their growth projections for 2023 revised downward. Notably, the growth prediction for Sudan has been lowered downward by 12.5 percentage points due to the harm done to the nation’s industrial foundation, as well as its educational and medical infrastructure, by the armed conflict that began there in April 2023.
With that said, the projected trend begs the question of what factors are responsible for the World Bank’s assessment. Some of the factors that have contributed to the downward trend include monetary and fiscal policy tightness in response to high inflation and fiscal unsustainability, high risk of debt distress, structural constraints such as energy and transportation bottlenecks, and rising conflict and violence manifested in a series of events such as coup d’états, protests, and heightened social unrest across Sub-Saharan African countries
Recent research on global growth phases suggests that Sub-Saharan Africa consistently has lower rates of poverty that are sensitive to economic expansion than other areas.
This lower elasticity appears to be caused by a weaker relationship between GDP and household consumption growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, which suggests that African countries need to experience higher growth per capita to match improvements in average living standards experienced by households in other regions.
Regardless there exist countries within the continent with very impressive growth across Sub-Saharan African Countries in 2023. Below are the top 10.
| Rank | Country | Growth % |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Rwanda | 5%-6% |
| 2. | Democratic Republic of Congo | 5%-6% |
| 3. | Côte d’Ivoire | 5%-6% |
| 4. | Mozambique | 5%-6% |
| 5 | Ethiopia | 4%-6% |
| 6. | Benin | 4%-6% |
| 7. | Cabo Verde | 4%-6% |
| 8. | Uganda | 3%-5.5% |
| 9. | Togo | 3%-5% |
| 10. | Tanzania | 3%-5% |
