(Repeats Aug. 18 story to additional clients)
By Nuzulack Dausen
DAR ES SALAAM, Aug 18 (Reuters) - The U.S.-China trade war
and uncertainty over Brexit pose risks to Africa's economic
prospects that are "increasing by the day," the head of the
African Development Bank (AfDB) told Reuters.
The trade dispute between the world's two largest economies
has roiled global markets and unnerved investors as it stretches
into its second year with no end in sight. Britain, meanwhile, appears to be on course to leave the
European Union on Oct. 31 without a transition deal, which
economists fear could severely disrupt trade flows. Akinwumi Adesina, president of the AfDB, said the bank could
review its economic growth projection for Africa - of 4% in 2019
and 4.1% in 2020 - if global external shocks accelerate.
"We normally revise this depending on global external shocks
that could slowdown global growth and these issues are
increasing by the day," Adesina told Reuters late on Saturday on
the sidelines of the Southern (NYSE:SO) African Development Community
meeting in Tanzania's commercial capital Dar es Salaam.
"You have Brexit, you also have the recent challenges
between Pakistan and India that have flared off there, plus you
have the trade war between the United States and China. All
these things can combine to slow global growth, with
implications for African countries."
The bank chief said African nations need to boost trade with
each other and add value to agricultural produce to cushion the
impact of external shocks.
"I think the trade war has significantly impacted economic
growth prospects in China and therefore import demand from China
has fallen significantly and so demand for products and raw
materials from Africa will only fall even further," he said.
"It will also have another effect with regard to China's own
outward-bound investments on the continent," he added, saying
these could also affect official development assistance.
Adesina said a continental free-trade zone launched last
month, the African Continental Free Trade Area, could help speed
up economic growth and development, but African nations needed
to remove non-tariff barriers to boost trade. "The countries that have always been facing lower
volatilities have always been the ones that do a lot more in
terms of regional trade and do not rely on exports of raw
materials,” Adesina said.
"The challenges cannot be solved unless all the barriers
come down. Free mobility of labour, free mobility of capital and
free mobility of people."
(Additional reporting and writing by Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala;
Editing by George Obulutsa and Mark Potter)