By Francis Ntow
Accra, July 12, GNA – The global economy has remained resilient despite pressures from geopolitical tensions, inflation and uneven growth prospects, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said.
Julie Kozack, Director of the Communications Department at the IMF, told journalists at the Fund’s regular press briefing in Washington, DC, monitored by the Ghana News Agency, that “the global economy has proven more resilient than many expected.”
“Overall, we’ve seen that the global economy has been resilient. It’s faced many shocks over the last several years. It has weathered the shock of the Middle East war as well. But we still anticipate that uncertainty will remain elevated,” she said.
Ms Kozack explained that while the war shock was weighing on energy importers and vulnerable economies, AI-driven demand was lifting countries integrated into the global technology value chain.
“Since the war in the Middle East started, we have the negative supply shock, which has pushed up commodity prices, particularly energy, fertiliser and food, and on the other side, we have a positive demand and productivity shock, which is coming from the technology cycle – artificial intelligence (AI-led) investment,” she said.
The July 2026 World Economic Outlook projected global growth at three per cent in 2026 and 3.4 per cent in 2027, broadly unchanged from April.
Ms Kozack said the projections assumed the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz in mid-July and an average oil price of US$89 per barrel in 2026.
Turning to Sub-Saharan Africa, she said growth was expected to edge down slightly to 4.3 per cent in 2026 from 4.5 per cent in 2025, before returning to 4.5 per cent in 2027.
“Oil exporters in Sub-Saharan Africa are likely to benefit from stronger revenues, but also improvements to their current account,” she said.
Ms Kozack noted that the region entered 2026 with stabilisation gains, including the fastest pace of economic activity in over a decade in 2025 and falling inflation.
“We entered 2026, and we had another shock and many of the countries who were most vulnerable to that shock – the commodity price shock – affecting fuel prices, fertiliser prices, ultimately food prices, were in Sub-Saharan Africa,” she said.
Ms Kozack said the IMF had made available between US$20 billion and US$50 billion in financing to address the impact of the Middle East war, noting that most vulnerable countries already had IMF-supported programmes.
“So, our support for them in terms of policy advice, a macroeconomic framework and financing is being done within the existing and in some cases, we have made adjustments to financing either through augmentation or rephasing,” she said.
GNA
Edited by Kenneth Sackey
Reporter: Francis Ntow