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Vol 67 No 9

Published 1st May 2026


Africa faces the costs of the US-Iran war

Bretton Woods institutions have cut Africa’s growth prospects at their Spring Meetings, as economists assess the shock to the global economy

The early 2026 optimism on Africa’s economic prospects, when the International Monetary Fund raised growth projections for African economies, has given way to concerns over the impact of the Middle East crisis. Four years after the IMF and World Bank warned that Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine could severely hit the continent’s non-resource-intensive economies and disrupt Africa’s recovery from the troughs of Covid-19, the institutions have cut their January projections for sub-Saharan Africa’s (SSA) 2026 growth by 0.3% (to 4.3%) and 0.2% (to 4.1%) respectively. They also warned that Africa’s 2027 prospects could be similarly dragged down.

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