MAPUTO, Mozambique
The African Development Bank (AfDB) estimates that the contraction of Mozambique’s economy last year took an additional 850,000 people below the poverty line, now at 63.7% of the population.
“The
economic contraction was expected to drag 850,000 people below the
international poverty line in 2020, an increase of 1.2 percentage points to
63.7% of the population, according to the World Bank, while GDP per capita was
expected to contract by –3.4% in 2020.,” a report by the AfDB reads.
It
further predicts economic growth of 2.3% this year and 4.5% in 2022,
insufficient to compensate for a 3.4% drop in gross domestic product (GDP) per capital
last year.
According
to the report ‘African Economic Outlook 2021’, themed ‘From Debt Resolution to Growth: The Road Ahead for
Africa‘, Mozambique’s “growth prospects are more
positive for the medium-term, with GDP expected to grow by 2.3% in 2021 and 4.5%
in 2022, when it will surpass the pre-pandemic level on the back of gas
investments.”.
“The
onset of the COVID–19 pandemic caused a sudden stop to Mozambique’s good
economic performance. Real GDP contracted by an estimated 0.5% in 2020, the
first decline in 28 years, after growing 2.2% in 2019. A slowdown in
construction, tourism, and transport, and a decrease in demand for commodities
exports were the main drivers of the deceleration. Economic activity was also
hurt by the escalating conflict in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, which
has displaced more than 250,000 people and resulted in more than a thousand
deaths,” reads the AfDB’s African Economic Outlook 2021 .
In
the report, the AfDB estimates growth for the continent of 3.2% this year,
after last year’s 2.1% recession resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Africa
is projected to recover in 2021 from its worst economic recession in half a
century” due to the pandemic,”projected to grow by 3.4 percent in 2021, after
contracting by 2.1 percent in 2020″, the report reads.
The
document emphasises that, although the economic impact of the pandemic was
differentiated according to region, “the anticipated recovery is generic”.
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You may read the full AfDB’s African Economic Outlook 2021
– From Debt Resolution to Growth: The Road Ahead for Africa HERE
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