NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 31 – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released the World Economic Outlook Update for July 2017, raising Sub-Saharan Africa’s growth expectation in 2017 to 2.7 percent, from 2.6 percent previously.
IMF attributed the upward revision to an upgrade on South Africa’s growth prospects from 2.6 percent previously to 2.7 percent attributed to better than expected rainfall, and hence increased agricultural output, and increased mining activity, brought about by a rebound in commodity prices.
The upgraded outlook on Sub-Saharan Africa’s growth prospects is expected to improve investor sentiment and encourage investment in the region.
In April, the IMF revised Kenya’s GDP growth downwards, to 5.3 percent, from 6 percent previously, attributing the cut to negative effects of the drought, the slow-down in private sector credit growth and the anticipated recovery in global oil prices.
The update comes at a time when the G20’s Global Infrastructure Hub (GI Hub) released the Global Infrastructure Outlook Report, indicating that Kenya will need to increase infrastructure spending by 41 percent in order to meet its infrastructure needs by 2040, with infrastructural spending expected to be a key driver in the country’s economic growth prospects.
