Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is projected to edge up from 3.3% in 2024 to 3.5% in 2025 and further accelerate to 4.3% in 2026–27, according to the World Bank's most recent regional economic update.
The World Bank said the SSA was showing some resilience, despite uncertainty in the global economy and restricted fiscal space. The median inflation rate had declined from 7.1% in 2023 to 4.5% in 2024. Countries rich in resources and those facing fragility, conflict and violence were growing more slowly than others, and the region was struggling to create enough good jobs.
Africa, it said, could also pave the way to inclusive growth by investing in its human potential. Over the next three decades, the region will experience the fastest increase in the working age population of all regions, with a projected net increase of 740 million people by 2050. Up to 12 million youth will enter the labour market across the region every year in the coming decades, but only about three million new formal wage jobs are currently created each year.
As the economies in the region recover at a faster pace in the years to come, policy should be geared toward sharing the growth benefits more equally across the population by investing in human capital, fostering economic diversification and fostering jobs-friendly economic growth.
About 464 million people in the region were still living in extreme poverty in 2024 but the per capita growth acceleration expected in 2025 to 2027, at an annual average rate of 1.8%, would contribute to a modest decline in the poverty rate. Limited investments in income-generating sectors for the poor, lingering effects of past inflation, and the probable reduction of donor aid budgets worldwide pose a challenge for poverty reduction.
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