DGAi

Strong growth in Africa's gross domestic product is expected to continue in 2008 and 2009, according to Louis Kasekende, the chief economist at the African Development Bank (ADB).

He was speaking in Maputo at the launch on Sunday of the seventh edition of the "African Economic Outlook", a report on the health of the continent's economy compiled by the ADB, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The launch was one of the preparatory events prior to the ADB Group's annual meetings scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday in the Mozambican capital.
Kasekende put Africa's overall growth rate at 5.7 per cent in 2007, and predicted that it would rise to 5.9 per cent this year, a rate that would remain steady in 2009.