According to its forecasts, made public at the beginning of this week, the Covid-19 health crisis, and the strong economic slowdown that followed ( against the background of border and business closures , partial or total confinements , decline in tax revenues and increase in public expenditure ), should result in a recession of 3.2% in the sub-Saharan region.

A contraction of the economy even more important than the forecasts made in April (1.6% then) . In this period, in Togo for example, while growth of 5.5% was projected for Togo this year, these figures have been revised downwards, to 3%...   then 1% .

Thus, although the Continent is the least affected from a health point of view , the economic consequences could represent a much greater challenge in the months to come; especially since the risk of the pandemic accelerating is not completely excluded.

Note that this update of the multilateral institution comes at a time when sub-Saharan countries are trying, as cautiously as possible, to reopen their economies and their borders , after some three months of closure. It should however be noted that, until now, the continent has shown itself to be much more resilient than the forecasts of many experts, and has already thwarted most of the disaster scenarios that had been depicted.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

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