Business
Africa benefits from global slowdown – attracting more investment
Africa is likely to benefit from weak global growth by attracting more investment that will drive its development, experts said at a financing conference in Ethiopia on Wednesday.
Investors have been pouring money into Africa in recent years, buoyed by its strong economic growth and improved governance amid slow growth in Europe, China and the United States.
“As the global economy continues to be sluggish and large emerging markets slow down, clearly the future is on this continent,” outgoing African Development Bank (AfDB) President Donald Kaberuka said.
“They need this continent – because their own economies have reached a point, I think, of no return.”
The global economy should expand by 3 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), amid continued uncertainty over Greece’s debt crisis and volatile Chinese financial markets.
Africa is home to some of the world’s fastest-growing economies, such as Ethiopia which has double digit growth.
“Africa is the destination for the investors of tomorrow,” Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said at an event focused on African development.
“Twenty years ago, investors were enthralled by tiger economies from Southeast Asia. Today, it is Africa’s emerging lion economies that are increasingly attracting investment at scale.”
African government bonds outperformed emerging market bonds globally in 2014, according to the JP Morgan index.
One key talking point at the conference is the increased role of the private sector in bankrolling the United Nations’ bold new global development agenda, at a time of shrinking aid budgets.
