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![Strong data from mining and manufacturing helped boost the South African economy in Q2 [Xinhua]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/70955690_41.jpg)
Strong data from mining and manufacturing helped boost the South African economy in Q2 [Xinhua]
In its World Economic Outlook Report, the IMF brought South Africa’s forecast GDP expansion for next year down to 0.8 per cent, compared with the 1 per cent it had originally anticipated in July.
The report also stated that Nigeria’s economy will contract 1.7 per cent this year and expand only 0.6 percent in 2017.
The two nations make up more than half of the sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP, and both have suffered from low commodity revenue.
The IMF believes countries in trouble, such as South Africa and Nigeria, need to adjust their fiscal policies to reinvigorate growth.
The IMF report, in general, paints a less than favorable picture of the health of the global economy, too.
“Taken as a whole, the world economy has moved sideways,” said IMF chief economist and economic counsellor, Maurice Obstfeld.
The world economy will expand 3.1 per cent this year, the IMF report showed – no change from its previous forecast in July.
“Next year, growth will increase slightly to 3.4 per cent on the back of recoveries in major emerging market nations, including Russia and Brazil,” the report said.
Meanwhile, however, several of the region’s non-commodity exporters like Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Senegal, are expected to continue to grow at a “robust pace” of more than 5 percent this year.
The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies
