IMF Insights: Steady Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa Amid Fiscal Changes

By: Peter Ort, The Quinnipiac University Global Economics Research Team

Photo by: Tunde Buremo on Unsplash

A new IMF blog post from November 18, 2025, titled Sub-Saharan Africa: Steady Growth Amid Fiscal Challenges discusses implications and strategies regarding recent Sub-Saharan economic growth. These strategies mostly point to keeping control of public perception of the government’s role in the economy while being able to maintain stable government revenue.

Despite sub-Saharan Africa being home to some of the world’s fastest growing economies in the past two years, it is no stranger to losing political and economic structure just as quickly. This region is often supported by foreign aid and international trade agreements to keep it steady before letting the economies be more self-sustainable. However, as of 2025, the US has indirectly compromised trade with Africa with trade agreements such as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) expiring just a few months ago. This act allowed for most sub-Saharan African countries to be near tax free with over 1800 products in the US market. With AGOA expired and the increasing of recent US tariffs, the US market is much harder for African countries to access than ever, further compromising opportunity to keep a stable economy.

Interest rates also remain relatively high as fifth of all sub-Saharan countries taking on a 10% inflation rate. In order to address these problems and make an attempt at being self-sustainable, these countries must have sound fiscal policy, debt management, and trust with the people. This starts with enabling tax reform, as counties like Rwanda, Tanzania, and Ghana have already digitized tax systems to assist with this. Digitizing taxes allows for a simplification of the tax collecting process, making it easier for both the government and citizen.

Next, sub-Saharan governments must focus on managing debt more efficiently. This comes in the form of not only cutting unnecessary spending but also making it more attractive for investors to buy debt. This can be done through more transparent data on what the debt is funding and of course having good interest rates to make it more lucrative.

Finally, governments must reinstate trust in its citizens so that people are willing to pay taxes and reinvest domestically at all. Without trust, fiscal and monetary policy quickly falls apart and countries are left to start at square one.

For more information, you can read “Sub-Saharan Africa: Steady Growth Amid Fiscal Challenges”