Washington (AFP)

"I do not know any country that could or will develop economically if there is no peace," says Christine Lagarde. Continuing conflict is the biggest drag on growth in sub-Saharan Africa, says the former IMF executive.

"Peace is the first condition," she insists in an exclusive interview with AFP, lamenting that we speak "very little" of the conflict situation that these countries are living, refugee camps "very very important" at the borders.

"Everything is connected, refugees do not leave their country with joy," she says. "Often, they leave a country because there is violence, because there is a risk of conflict, because the war drives them out of their country".

On a more optimistic note, she points out that Africa has experienced "phenomenal changes" and "significant improvement" in recent decades.

The International Monetary Fund, which has strengthened its presence on the African continent to provide technical expertise, has contributed to "changing attitudes" by raising awareness among countries of the importance of macroeconomic policies.

In addition, the role of African women in the economy - which Christine Lagarde has consistently highlighted - and the impact of technology on young people have all contributed to growth.

Lagarde, who has just left the post of Executive Director of the IMF, which she has held for eight years, recalls having herself been at the bedside. "I visited so many African countries," she recalls. With each trip - one to two a year - she traveled to three or four different countries to take the economic pulse, encourage decision makers to take the necessary measures and fight against corruption.

- Persistent poverty -

Economic development in sub-Saharan Africa is today "superior to global growth," she says, pointing out that there are countries, like Côte d'Ivoire, Rwanda or Senegal where development is still much faster.

The IMF played a "portfolio role", deploying significant funding.

However, poverty continues to increase in sub-Saharan Africa, which was four years ago more than half of the extremely poor world population. And this region of the world is particularly weakened by climate change and demographic pressure.

Projections show that by 2030, nearly 9 out of 10 people living in extreme poverty will come from this part of the world, while the population of the continent will grow at the same time by 1.3 billion, or more than half of the world's population growth.

For 2019, the IMF expects a growth of 3.4% of GDP for this part of the world, against 3% in 2018 and against 3.2% for the world economy.

But the average growth in recent years remains insufficient to create the 20 million jobs that would be needed each year to absorb new entrants to the labor market.

Faced with these difficulties, the IMF, under the leadership of Christine Lagarde, has relentlessly encouraged African countries to form a free trade area to boost trade.

At the beginning of July, the African Union member countries symbolically launched in Niamey the "operational phase" of the African Continental Free Trade Area (Zlec). For its promoters, it must be a step towards peace and prosperity in Africa and become "the largest trading area in the world".

The ambition is to make this market active from 1 July 2020 on condition that the 54 countries agree on the timing and scale of tariff reductions as well as on the movement of goods imported from the country. foreign.

At the side of this free trade area, the other challenge remains the mobilization of funds to invest heavily in infrastructure, just as crucial for development.

© 2019 AFP