By ‘Majirata Latela
The International Monetary Fund has reduced its initial projections and is now forecasting a lower global growth of 3.6 percent in 2022 compared to 6.1 percent in 2021.
This is according to the remarks given by Botswana’s minister of finance and chairperson of the Southern African Customs Union council of ministers, Peggy Serame at the 47 ministerial meeting held on the 27-28 June 2022.
“The advanced economies are now forecast to record growth of 3.3 percent compared to 5.2 percent in 2021. Similar trends in the emerging market and developing countries (EMDEs) including SACU are mirroring the global trends.
“The EMDEs are forecast to record a growth of 3.8 percent in 2022 compared to 6.8 percent in 2021. The Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region’s projection was also reduced to 3.8 percent for 2022 compared to 4.5 percent in 2021,” Serame said.
She added that SACU’s economy contracted by an average weighted 6.5 percent in 2020 but is estimated to record an average weighted growth of 4.9 percent in 2021.
However, Serame said in the current year, growth is projected to mirror the global trends and record a lower rate of around 2.2 percent.
