Growth in Africa poised to halve from average of past decade

Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa is poised to halve from the average of the past decade to slightly more than 3 per cent in 2009 as the continent is struck by the “third wave” of the global economic crisis, the International Monetary Fund has warned. Antoinette Sayeh, director of the IMF’s Africa department, said the crisis that began in developed economies and then hit emerging markets was hurting the world’s poorest continent via low global commodity prices, tighter credit markets and depressed external demand.