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London - Africa as a whole is likely to see gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 6% next year, while the figure for sub-Saharan Africa should be 6.5%, African Development Bank (AfDB) president Donald Kaberuka said on Thursday.
"I think next year Africa will be growing at 6%. In sub-Saharan Africa it will be 6.5%," he told Reuters in an interview. "Africa is coming out of the (global financial) crisis stronger; it's developing a strong relationship with emerging markets."
He said the bank was likely to borrow $3bn to $3.5bn on international markets in 2011.
"We can borrow around $3bn to $3.5bn in 2011. We are going on a borrowing programme shortly. We have no difficulty raising funds," he said.
He added that the bank was able to secure funding below the London interbank offered rate. "We are back to Libor minus," he said without elaborating.
The AfBD said earlier this year that it expected growth of 5.2% for next year, but a stronger than expected rebound led by demand for the continent's commodities has confounded economists' expectations.
The continent would be back to its average GDP growth trend of 6% reached during the decade before the financial crisis, which slashed growth to 2.9% in 2009.
Economists expect Africa to grow by 5% this year.
The AfDB has tripled its capital base this year to $100bn, giving it greater firepower to tackle the huge infrastructure deficit faced by countries across a continent of a billion people.
The AfDB's shareholders are Africa's 53 nations and 24 non-African donor countries.
Low interest rates in developed market have encouraged investors to look elsewhere to fast-growing, high-yield emerging and frontier markets.
"Money is looking for yield," Kaberuka said.
