Dakar- The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Donald Kaberuka, said he is optimistic about Africa's future, even if the continent is being badly hit by the global economic crisis, and forecast an economic upturn next year. According to AfDB, the crisis will cause enormous losses in terms of export and tax revenues in Africa and for the first time since 1994 per capita income will fall in countries wealthy in oil and minerals and in those dependent on agricultural exports. The crisis will also push 27 million people into poverty in 2009. Despite this outlook, Kaberuka remains confident about the continent's prospects. "I remain resolutely optimistic. There are regions such as East Africa where the growth rate will remain at over five percent in spite of the crisis," he said. "Within ECOWAS (the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States) the growth rate is around 3.5%," he said at a round-table on the effects of the global financial crisis. He added that the growth rate is not sufficient but shows that African economies are resilient. "I feel that next year, we're going to see a recovery. That's why economic reforms must not be abandoned. The solutions lie in meeting the crisis with short-term means, but remaining focused on the constraints for African growth in the longer term." Kaberuka urged focus on infrastructure development and regional integration, with strong institutions to oversee such processes.
After five years of strong growth, Africa is expected to experience a marked slowdown in 2009 because of the global crisis. According to a joint AfDB and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report the continent's GDP growth is only expected to reach 2.8% in 2009 compared with 5.7% in 2008, before picking up again to 4.5% in 2010.