Francophone sub-Saharan Africa overall achieved the best economic performance in Africa despite the negative effects of the health crisis. For the year 2021, the region should expect a rebound.

Francophone sub-Saharan Africa, the least indebted part of the continent, posted the best performance in terms of GDP variation, according to data provided by the World Bank in its "World Economic Outlook" report, published last January.
Overall, 22 countries managed to limit the decline in activity resulting from the Covid-19 crisis, recording negative growth of -2.1%, while the rest of sub-Saharan Africa recorded a rate of -4.3%
Also, the region has generally managed to control its level of debt, which was already the lowest on the continent, with a 4.1 percentage point increase in the overall weight of public debt relative to GDP, compared to an increase of 8.3 points for the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.

In non-French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria, South Africa and Angola, three of the main economies in the zone, posted negative growth of -4.1%, -7.8% and -4.0%, respectively, after achieving relatively poor performances in 2019 (2.2%, 0.2% and -0.9%, respectively).