SOUTH AFRICA NAMED AFRICA’S LARGEST ECONOMY

South Africa has been named as the continent’s largest economy by the International Monetary Fund.

The IMF’s World Economic Outlook has placed Egypt in second place, Algeria in second place and Nigeria in fourth place.

The estimated gross product for South Africa has been estimated at $373 billion, Egypt at $348 billion, Algeria at $267 billion and Nigeria at $253 billion.

Egypt held the top position in 2023 and is projected to fall to second place after a series of currency devaluations. It’s expected that Egypt will reclaim the top position in 2027 while Nigeria will remain in fourth place.

Egypt is one of the world’s most indebted countries and, after Argentina, the IMF’s second biggest borrower.

BusinessTech reports that unlike Nigeria’s naira and Egypt’s pounds, the value of South Africa’s rand has long been set in the financial markets and it has lost about 4% of its value against the dollar this year. Its economy is expected to benefit from improvements to its energy supply and plans to tackle logistic bottlenecks.

Image credit: The Citizen