The World Bank has lowered its 2016 growth forecast for Africa to 3.3%, from 4.2% previously, after the continent expanded by only 3% in 2015; the slowest pace of growth since the 2009 global financial crisis and well below the 6.8% levels experienced by the continent between 2003 and 2008. The bank’s latest Africa’s Pulse publication, released on Monday, indicated that the weak 2015 performance, as well as the 2016 downward revision, could be attributed largely to the plunge in commodity prices, which had dramatically lowered the terms of trade for the continent’s oil and minerals exporters.
