Sub-Saharan
Africa GDP per capita peaked in 2014 at $1,936 and has since fallen
more than 10% to about $1,700 this year. In the same period, global GDP
per capita has risen nearly 15%. The risk of another decade of
stagnating personal income is real, and it would be a dreadful outcome
for the world’s poorest continent. Africa is particularly vulnerable
because a large share of its population is already living below the
poverty threshold, and its emerging working and middle classes are more
fragile than elsewhere, floating in between making ends meet and penury.
In 2023 African borrowers raised virtually no money on the bond market.