Only four East African countries are still on course to record positive economic growth in 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Mama Keita, the head of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Uneca) sub-regional office for Eastern Africa.

South Sudan leads with an estimated 4.1 percent GDP growth, followed by Ethiopia and Tanzania on 1.9 percent each and Kenya on 1 percent. Ms Keita was presenting an online presentation of Uneca’s latest report Economic and social impacts of Covid-19 in Eastern Africa published on November 24-25.

The region will see a sharp GDP growth slowdown from 6.6 percent in 2019 to 0.6 percent in 2020, a Uneca statement quoted Ms Keita says.

The report analysed the economic impacts of Covid-19 in 14 countries within the sub-region: Burundi, Comoros, DR Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

“The effect of the pandemic on growth has been uneven across the region. While the region has generally been adversely affected by this crisis, the impact has been more severe for countries dependent on tourism,” the report says, singling out Seychelles and Kenya where tourist arrivals were down 94 per cent and 91 per cent respectively between August 2019 and August 2020.

While Kenya received 162,000 tourist visitors in August 2019, the number had dwindled to just 14,000 by August this year.

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