Rising African economies have become the driving force of global growth, said IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Monday, but she also warned that armed conflicts pose a major threat to the continent’s future development.
African countries rich in natural resources continue to achieve impressive growth, despite stagnation in Europe and the slow recovery of the U.S. economy. The IMF forecasts a growth rate of 5.25 percent for sub-Saharan Africa in 2013, just behind the emerging economies of Asia and far above the global growth rate of 3.6 percent.
– It is clear that fast-growing countries are the engine of global economic growth – Lagarde said before lawmakers in the parliament of Côte d’Ivoire, the leading cocoa producer that received a $4 billion IMF loan last year. However, these achievements are called into question by armed conflicts across the continent, the IMF chief warned.
The mining sector, which offers everything from copper and iron to diamonds and gold, is experiencing significant growth due to demand from China. The same goes for oil, and investors are also attracted by the growing and untapped consumer market.
