Browsing: World Bank data

• Africa’s average GDP will stabilize at around 4 percent in the course of the next two years, notes AfDB.
• The continent needs alternative sources of imports and new export markets to counter disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine.
• Economists are urging African economies to look at expediting intra-African trade to stave off global shocks.

A significant number of African nations continue to show economic resilience in the face of tougher global challenges. The latest update by the African Development Bank (AfDB) on economic review says the continent has a stable outlook in the 2023-2024 financial year.

Africa’s Macroeconomic Performance and Outlook report provides an up-to-date assessment of the continent’s macroeconomic performance and a forecast of expected performance on the backdrop of global economic challenges.

Africa average GDP to stabilise at 4 percent

The lender estimates that Africa’s average GDP will stabilise at around 4 percent in the course of …

• Tanzania’s government has banned institutions from using charcoal and firewood for their energy needs.
• Tanzania has lost 16 percent of its forest cover to human-related activities.
• 85 percent of Tanzania’s energy needs are met with charcoal and firewood burning.

To curb the destruction of forests, Tanzania has set a deadline for its own institutions to stop using charcoal and firewood, an ambitious gesture for a country whose 85 percent of energy needs are met through the burning of charcoal and firewood.

As a result of this high dependence on forests for its energy needs, Tanzania’s forests are being depleted at a tremendous pace; 16 percent of forest cover has already been lost to date. At the current rate, Tanzania is losing over 640,429 hectares of forest per year.

The forest loss is mostly blamed on human activities related to unsustainable farming practices, development activities and to meet the huge energy …

Uganda will find itself with a crisis of more workers than jobs unless the country’s economy grows faster than its current pace world bank report says.

According to “Uganda: Jobs strategy for inclusive growth” a new World Bank report released early last week, Uganda has seen more than 300,000 additional workers enter the job market per year between 1992 and 2014. Between 2030 and 2041, the number is set to rise to over one million annually.

The report said that With the country’s growing population, an economic transformation that will create jobs creation requires faster urbanisation with industrialisation, which should start with the developing commercial agriculture.

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The agricultural sector in Uganda accounts for around 80 per cent of the annual export earnings and employs nearly 82 per cent of the workforce.

Three-quarters of young Ugandans entering the labour market work in agriculture …

The World Bank said Uganda’s 7 per cent projected growth rate under the National Development Plan (NDP) III, given the current economic fundamentals is too ambitious.

National Development Plan (NDP) III, is a government-working document for at least the next five years. It will start this year in the 2020/21 financial year.

Speaking during a media briefing in Kampala about the country’s economic outlook, the World Bank senior economist, Mr Richard Walker, said the government’s capital spending continues to fall, dropping to about 8 per cent in the last two financial years.

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Which he said has constrained Uganda’s fiscal policy which is characterised by low tax revenue to GDP ratio.
“Capital spending continues to fall short of expectations, diminishing the expected return from public investments. 5.3 per cent capital spending versing budget allocation of 6.4 per cent. This inability …