Nigeria Topples South Africa As Africa’s Biggest Economy
Nigeria is Africa’s biggest economy, despite its current recession.
That is according to a projection in a new report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The most populated African country is placed ahead of South Africa and Egypt which are second and third respectively.
Nigeria lost its number one position as Africa’s biggest economy to South Africa, in August. That happened on the back of the recalculation of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
In the report
The IMF’s World Economic Outlook for October, puts Nigeria’s GDP at 415.08 billion dollars, from 493.83 billion dollars in 2015, while South Africa’s GDP was put at 280.36 billion, from 314.73 billion dollars in 2015.
The report shows that Egypt’s 2016 data is unavailable. But the country’s 2015 number remained at 330.159 dollars, while that of Algeria, another economic powerhouse in Africa, is put at 168.318 billion dollars.
Outside the continent
The United States, China and Japan maintained their spots as the largest economies in the world, ahead of Germany, United Kingdom and France.
According to a review in September, the current economic recession will outlast 2016, with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contraction of 1.7 per cent.
The IMF had predicted that Nigeria’s economy would grow away from a recession in 2017.
The country last witnessed a recession, for less than a year, in 1991, and experienced a prolonged one that started in 1982 and lasted until 1984.
