IMF sees Sub-Saharan Africa leading global growth in 2026 at 4.8 percent

The International Monetary Fund’s October World Economic Outlook has projected Sub-Saharan Africa as the world’s fastest-growing region for a third consecutive year, expanding at 4.8 percent in 2026 compared to a global average of 3.1 percent, with Ethiopia, Rwanda, Senegal and Ghana among the strongest performers on the continent.nnGhana’s economy is projected to grow 4.9 percent in 2026, accelerating from 3.2 percent in 2025 as the effects of the IMF-supported economic stabilisation programme take hold, commodity export revenues recover and fiscal consolidation creates space for public investment.nnIMF Africa Department director Abebe Selassie said the region’s relative outperformance reflected a combination of demographic advantage, commodity windfall, improved macroeconomic management and, in some countries, meaningful progress on the structural reforms that had long been deferred.nn”The story is not uniform. There are countries in the region facing severe fiscal stress and security instability. But the aggregate growth trajectory is genuinely encouraging,” Selassie told journalists at the Washington press conference.nnRisks identified in the outlook include climate-related agricultural disruption, which the IMF said was increasingly material to macroeconomic forecasts across the region; debt sustainability pressures in eight countries; and the external demand shock that would result from a significant slowdown in China, Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest single trade partner.nnFor Ghana specifically, the Fund flagged the importance of maintaining fiscal discipline through the electoral cycle and continuing the domestic revenue mobilisation reforms that have raised the tax-to-GDP ratio from 13.2 to 15.8 percent since 2023.