Egypt’s economic growth is expected to account for 17% of Africa’s output growth in 2022, according to a report prepared by the African Import-Export Bank (Afreximbank).
The bank is upbeat about growth prospects on the continent in the near term, despite significant challenges to the global economy presented by the fallout from Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Egypt takes the spotlight in Afrexim’s most recent report which attributes strengthening growth in North Africa to “impressive performance” in Egypt over the past couple of years. The country ties with Nigeria in the bank’s forecast of the two most significant drivers of growth on the continent in 2022. Our GDP grew at a strong 9% clip in 1H 2021-2022, with the second quarter of the fiscal year alone seeing 8.3% growth, beating expectations. The economy grew at a 5.4% clip in 3Q 2021-2022 (the three months ending 31 March 2022) accelerating from 2.9% in the same period last year, despite the quarter including inflation and commodity price shocks from the war in Ukraine. After accounting for the war’s fallout, the government revised upwards its 2021-2022 growth outlook to 6.2% on the back of the figures.
There are a lot of reasons for this: Structural reforms enacted in Egypt before the pandemic hit “eliminated currency overvaluation and strengthened the business climate to boost competitiveness,” the report said. “A buoyant gas extraction sector; stronger private consumption; and growing remittances and capital inflows,” were also responsible for our strong performance, the report notes.
