Debt a concern for Africa: IMF

LIBREVILLE, May 08 (AFP): Growth across sub-Saharan African will rise to 3.4 per cent this year from 2.8 per cent in 2017, but in the continent's poorest countries, debt is a major burden, the IMF said on Tuesday.
Top performers are Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Senegal and Tanzania, the International Monetary Fund said.
Their economies expanded by six percent or more in 2017 and will maintain strong growth over the medium term, it said.
The star is Ethiopia, which notched up 10.9 per cent growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017, and is expected to enjoy 8.5 per cent this year.
At the other end of the scale lie 12 countries, home to about a third of sub-Saharan Africa's population.
Last year, per-capita incomes declined in these economies-a trend that is likely to happen in most of them in 2018, it said.
Its Regional Economic Outlook for 2018 praised high-performing countries that have tackled entrenched macro-economic problems and encouraged investment.
These economies have also benefited from favourable global winds-stronger world growth and higher commodities prices.
As a result, capital inflows in these economies have risen, and some countries have been able to build up their reserves.