The latest forecast is lower than government’s, which in February announced a forecast of 4.2 percent growth for 2019. The revised IMF forecast, however, places Botswana above the sub-Saharan average of 3.5 percent and the SADC average of 2.4 percent for 2019. The latest revisions are contained in the IMF’s World Economic Outlook (WEO) released on Tuesday. Every year, the Bretton Woods institute releases the WEO in April before revising it in October.
Last April, the IMF had forecast Botswana’s 2019 growth at 4.5 percent before revising it down to 3.6 percent in its October update. The WEO is the world’s most authoritative research analysis on global economic trends, threats and forecasts, covering the IMF’s 189 member states, which include Botswana. The latest forecast generally swims against a downgrade in the global growth forecast and similar reduction in the outlook for sub-Saharan Africa. The IMF shaved its forecast of global economic growth in 2019 by 0.1 percent to 3.6 percent, while cutting its forecast for sub-Saharan Africa by 0.3 percent to 3.5 percent. The IMF expects an improvement in the second half of this year. “The current forecast envisages that global growth will level off in the first half of 2019 and firm up after that.
