2015-01-26 18:21
Addis Ababa - Africa's economy is likely to suffer only a minor
blow from the Ebola outbreak despite the "considerable" impact on
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, a UN official said Monday.
"From
the start, the ECA was confident that the alarmist projections were
wrong," said Carlos Lopez, the executive secretary of the UN Economic
Commission for Africa.
"We could not visualise more than a
marginal impact on the region's performance, given that the three most
affected countries account for less than one percent of Africa's
combined GDP," he said, adding that the "suffering experienced by
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone is considerable."
"Africa's
growth forecast is still higher than in any other continent," said
Lopez, who was speaking to top African diplomats ahead of an African
Union summit on Friday and Saturday.
However
he said conflict, insecurity and terror threats, together with a fall
in oil and raw material prices, were weighing on the continent.
"Their
impact on the continent's economic performances stretches from missed
opportunities to contagious risk perceptions that are much more serious
than those surrounding the Ebola outbreak," he said of the impact of
conflict and terrorism notably attacks by Boko Haram in Nigeria, and
fighting in Somalia, South Sudan and Central African Republic.
No comments:
Post a Comment