Infographic: Securing African Growth in 2025 – what lies ahead for the continent?

Happy 2025! As we enter a new year, at DR we’ve been asking the question – what lies ahead for the continent, particularly in terms of economic growth? 

Released in October 2024, the IMFs World Economic Outlook (WEO) continues to echo a similar sentiment from both 2023 and 2024 – that global economic growth remains fragile, albeit with slight improvements. 

But does that same view apply to African countries, or is the story different? To answer this, we analysed the latest WEO, alongside the World Bank’s most recent Global Economic Prospects, as well as the African Development Bank’s latest Africa Macroeconomic Performance and Outlook (May 2024). Here are three takeaways from our analysis. 

1. Africa’s growth forecasts continue to lead. Despite the three institutions diverging on the projected pace of economic growth, Africa is seen outpacing global economic growth forecasts – a continuation of past trends, a fact which is both underreported and overlooked. More specifically, in 2025 and 2026, at least 44 African countries each year will outpace global growth forecasts of 3.2% and 3.3%.
2. Six of fastest 10 growing economies in 2025 are projected to be African, a trend expected to be replicated in 2026. For 2025, these are; South Sudan (27.2%), Libya (13.6%), Senegal (9.3%), Sudan (8.3%), Uganda (7.5%) and Niger (7.3%).
3. Despite having strong growth prospects in 2024 and beyond, African countries continue to be constrained by the current global financial architecture. Out of the 63 countries around the world with Debt-to-GDP ratios above 60%, 21 are African. Moreover, 71% of countries in this group of 63 classified by the IMF/WB as “High Risk” or “In Debt Distress” are African – a trend that has persisted since 2019. Consequently, access to much needed development finance comes at a higher cost for African countries and in insufficient volumes when compared to the scale of financing needs – despite being forecasted to lead economic growth. 

In 2025 what should African leaders prioritise to fuel growth? We have 4 key ideas… 

1. Facilitate borrower coordination – to negotiate better terms with creditors and build capacity through shared knowledge on accessing finance and debt restructuring, as detailed here.
2. Push for debt sustainability analysis reform – Africa should use its position in G21 to advocate for a DSA that removes financing bottlenecks for African countries, as stressed by African experts.
3. Advocate for IMF Quota Reform – to provide fair representation for the African continent and increase development financing.
4. Align with AU’s Agenda 2063 – and infrastructure development to build a solid foundation for sustainable growth. 

At Development Reimagined, we’re dedicated to transforming the global conversation on development by expanding the reach of innovative perspectives that put Africa first. Hence, we welcome and permit you and your media organization to quote, link to, and/or comment on our research reports and visual analytics on your organization’s website or social media posts under the condition that you provide proper attribution including reference by name to Development Reimagined and a link to the source on the DR website, for any text, charts, images, or other DR content you use. 

To find out how Development Reimagined can support you, your organisation or Government to review key economic policies, please email the team at clients@developmentreimagined.com. 

Acknowledgements: Special thanks go to Rugare Mukanganga and Jade Scarfe, for their work on the graphics, collecting/analysing the underlying data and sharing this accompanying article. The data was collated from the World Bank Group’s databank, IMF World Economic Outlook, and the African Development Bank’s African Economic Outlook. Our methodology is entirely in-house, based on analysis of economic growth, inflation and other trends.