Andrew Dabalen, the World Bank's chief economist for Africa is, perhaps surprisingly, upbeat about the continent's economic prospects in the near term.
"Economic activity has been relatively resilient this year, despite all the uncertainty we've seen," he says. "We've upgraded our growth forecast from 3.5 to 3.8, and we expect it to accelerate to 4.4 in the next couple of years."
To the casual observer, this might seem counterintuitive. The shadow of Covid-era stagnation still hangs over parts of the continent and several countries are either in debt distress, close to it or just coming out of it through International Monetary Fund-assisted programmes. And that's aside the disruptions arising out of Washington's new approach to global trade which has created market turbulence and uncertainty.