And while economies continue to grow in real terms, the experience of the past few years – in particular, their abrupt slowdown in 2015 – highlights the region’s vulnerability to external developments, such as swings in resource prices or a rebalancing of China’s growth path towards less commodity-intensive demand.
Finally, while inflation in the first half of 2018 was reasonably benign in the majority of African countries, the sensitivity of consumer price trends to prices of oil and food commodities, and to exchange rate swings – because of the high share of consumer goods that are imported – is a strong reminder that such stability cannot be taken for granted.