World Bank says sub-Saharan Africa will enter recession in 2020

The World Bank forecasts the sub-Saharan Africa region's economic growth for 2020 will contract because of the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, going into a recession for the first time in 25 years, it said on Thursday.

The bank's Africa's Pulse report said this year's growth will be between minus 2.1% to minus 5.1% from 2.4% last year, and that the coronavirus will cost sub-Saharan Africa $37 billion to $79 billion in output losses this year due to trade and value chain disruption, among other factors.