Press Release No. 14/146

Press Release: IMF to Hold Full-Day Seminar on “Africa Rising” on April 9

April 1, 2014

The IMF will hold a full-day seminar on the theme Africa Rising: Building to the Future as part on April 9. The seminar will offer an in-depth examination of the crucial policy challenges facing Sub-Saharan Africa as it seems to broaden its recent economic successes.

The seminar is a key step in the preparations for an IMF-Mozambique conference on the same theme, to be held in Maputo May 29-30, 2014. The Mozambique conference will bring together senior policy makers from countries in sub-Saharan Africa, development partners, business executives, academics and civil society leaders. The agendas of the April 9 seminar and Mozambique conference are closely aligned so that the first event can conduct an in-depth examination of the issues, and then provide policy suggestions and analytical input for the leaders meeting in Mozambique.

The Africa Rising event comes amid considerable optimism about the region’s economic prospects. Many sub-Saharan African countries have posted robust growth over the past decade coupled with low debt levels, access to non-concessional borrowing from abroad, and substantial revenues from extractive industries. However, many questions remain about the sustainability of the current growth path and the degree to which that growth has been adequately inclusive. Going forward, the global environment might become more uncertain and high commodity prices more volatile, while global liquidity might become less abundant. Moreover, sub-Saharan Africa faces important challenges from the continued high level of poverty coupled with limited employment growth.

Panels will include sessions on inclusive growth, structural transformation and economic diversification, and scaling up public investment. The culmination of the event will be a flagship panel on Building to the Future, which will review the conclusions of the day’s discussions. Panelists during the day will include Benno Ndulu, Central Bank Governor from Tanzania; Ricardo Hausmann, Harvard University Professor of the Practice of Economic Development; Daniel Kaufman, President of the Revenue Watch Institute; and IMF Deputy Managing Director Min Zhu.

The April 9 event will be open to the public and will be streamed live. Additional information about the full-day seminar is available online. Press queries should be directed to Ismaila Dieng: idieng@imf.org