African Economic Outlook 2021
The African Economic Outlook is the African Development Bank’s flagship annual publication. It provides economic data as well as analysis and recommendations for the continent’s economies. Each edition focuses on a contemporary theme. The 2021 theme From debt resolution to growth: the road ahead for Africa highlights the impact of Covid-19 and government debt and offers mitigating measures to governments and policymakers. This latest African Economic Outlook estimates that Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 2.1% in 2020, the continent’s first recession in half a century. The AfDB does however project GDP growth on the continent to grow by 3.4% in 2021. Regarding debt, the report estimates that African governments need additional gross financing of about $154 billion in 2020/21 to respond to the COVID-19 crises.
