Guinea’s growth rate is expected to fall to 4.2% in 2024, lower than the 5.4% initially projected, Prime Minister Amadou Oury Bah said in a speech on Monday, citing various factors including aftereffects of the pandemic and an explosion at a major oil terminal.
The West African country’s growth rate was 7.1% in 2023, according to the World Bank, largely supported by its mining sector.
In a speech to the National Transitional Council, Bah attributed the projected drop in the growth rate from 5.4% to 4.2% to “shocks linked to the cost of living, conflicts and the exacerbation of geopolitical tensions, the persistence of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic” and the explosion late last year at Guinea’s main oil terminal.
“However, the growth rate of our economy is above the African average of 3.4% — this illustrates the resilience of our economy,” the prime minister added.
The explosion at the oil terminal on Dec. 18 killed at least 23 people.
The National Transitional Council serves as the general assembly during a transition to elections in Guinea, which has been ruled by a military junta since Sept. 5, 2021.
Guinea, which is home to a third of the world’s known bauxite reserves, exported more than 126 million metric tons of bauxite in 2023, according to official figures. Bauxite is used to make aluminium.