The African Development Bank’s 2026 African Economic Outlook, released at its Annual Meetings in Brazzaville in May 2026, put the continent’s 2025 GDP growth at an estimated 4.4 percent, with 22 economies posting rates above 5 percent, and projects growth of 4.2 percent in 2026 before rebounding to 4.4 percent in 2027. East Africa remains the fastest-growing region, though growth is expected to ease from 6.6 percent in 2025 to 5.9 percent in 2026 due to rising energy and import costs linked to Middle East disruptions, before rebounding to 6.4 percent in 2027. West Africa is forecast to hold relatively steady at 4.7 percent in 2026. Published under the theme ‘Mobilizing Africa’s Development Financing at Scale in a Fragmented World,’ the report’s central finding is a financing gap exceeding $1.3 trillion annually to meet Sustainable Development Goals, which the Bank attributes to weak domestic resource mobilisation, thin financial intermediation and tightening external financing conditions.
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