'Africa catching up with world'

Long periods of decay and stagnation in 1970s, 80s and early 90s have now been replaced by steady growth which will help the continent in the battle against poverty, said the report which was released near Johannesburg.

"Over the past decade, Africa has recorded an average growth rate of 5.4% which is at par with the rest of the world," said Obiageli Ezekwesili, World Bank vice-president for Africa.

"The ability to support, sustain and in fact diversify the sources of these growth indicators would be critical not to Africa's capacity to meet (UN poverty targets) but also to becoming an exciting investment destination for global capital."

The continent's overall economic performance was helped in large part by the rise in revenue from oil exporters such as Equatorial Guinea which saw Gross Domestic Product grow by 30.8% between 1996 and 2005, while Angola saw a rise of 8.5% during the same period.

John Page, the bank's chief economist for Africa, said the figures showed how "for the first time in three decades, they (African economies) are growing in tandem with the rest of the world".

While resource-rich countries were benefitting from a rise in global prices, countries that were not blessed with big reserves were also performing well.

"Leading the way are the oil and mineral exporters, thanks to high prices," said Page. "But 18 non-mineral economies, with 36% of sub-Saharan people, have also been doing well."

Oil exports grew from 16.7% in 2003 to 21.6 in 2004, to 19.2% in 2005 but fell to 13.5% last year, according to the report. Non-oil exports inched from 4.5% in 2003 to 7.1% last year.

The World Bank report comes a week after a report by its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund, said that sub-Saharan Africa was enjoying its strongest economic growth and its lowest inflation in more than three decades.

- AFP