KEY NOTE ADDRESS_NCB Forum by Dr. Louis Kasekende

East Africa is the only region in Africa, however, that avoided a deep recession in 2020 due to strong performance in agriculture and 3 resilience in the services (financial and telecommunication) sector which were the main drivers of economic growth, boosted by sustained public spending on large infrastructure projects. [...] Despite high inflation in East Africa, averaging 10 percent in 2020 and the highest on the continent, 5 of the 6 countries recorded single- digit inflation due to stable food inflation, lower energy inflation in the first quarter of 2020 and subdued demand. [...] During the same period, the average growth for the East Africa region will also be expected to recover to 5.1 and 5.4 percent, respectively, at the back of improved global control of the pandemic in relation to vaccination, strong domestic activity, particularly in primary 6 activities (agriculture and mining), resilience of their service sector as well as spillovers from strengthening global acti. [...] The new waves have already led to reintroduction of lockdowns and quarantines in Kenya 9 and Uganda, and these could expand to other countries in the region slowing or derailing the region’s recovery. [...] The goal of these proposed strategies is to preserve livelihoods in the short term while maintaining debt sustainability in the medium term and building economic resilience in the long term.