Soaring oil, gas and food prices are expected to affect poor people in urban areas first, according to the institution.
The World Bank forecasts a slowdown in growth for 2022 in sub-Saharan Africa, where many countries, barely recovered from the economic shock of Covid-19, are facing the consequences of the war in Ukraine. In a semi-annual report on the continent’s macroeconomic outlook published on Wednesday, April 13, the institution forecasts “growth of 3.6% for 2022, down from the 4% recorded in 2021”.
“This slowdown takes place in a regional context marked by the persistence of new variants of Covid-19, global inflation, the disruption of supply chains and climatic shocks. The rise in world commodity prices, which has accelerated since the start of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, adds to the other economic challenges in the region.
“The world’s largest food exporters, Russia – which is also the world’s largest fertilizer exporter – and Ukraine, account for a significant share of imports of wheat, maize and seed oil, and those this could be interrupted in the event of a continuation of the conflict”, specifies the World Bank.