Better times for Africa in 2008

The IMF's World Economic Outlook forecasts a 6.8 percent growth for the continent in 2008. Up from 6.1 percent in 2007, it's a performance not seen in the region since the 1970s. Notably, not all growth was attributed to rising commodity prices:

The combination of more open economies in a benign external environment, together with improved and more consistent policy reforms to strengthen the business environment and official actions to reduce debt burdens has allowed African countries to attract rising private capital inflows as well as benefit from "some step-up" in aid inflows and remittances.