According to the IMF, South Africa is set to become Africa’s biggest economy with a GDP of $373 billion, displacing Egypt with a GDP of $347 to the second place in the wake of the country’s series of currency devaluations.

A sharp devaluation of currency and high inflation has also been attributed to Nigeria’s fall to fourth place in the latest IMF economic forecast. This is a big blow to the country’s economy which ranked as Africa’s largest in 2022.

The IMF’s World Economic Outlook estimates Nigeria’s gross domestic product at $253 billion based on current prices this year, a spot behind energy-rich Algeria at $267 billion.

Reacting to the forecast on Tuesday, South Africa’s President and leader of the African National Congress (ANC) Cyril Ramaphosa termed the news of his country’s economic growth as impressive.

“We have now become the largest economy on the African continent, with Nigeria and Egypt having been up there and having their challenges and now South Africa being the largest economy in the continent,” President Ramaphosa.

He expressed his confidence that the rankings would influence foreign investments in South Africa.

“That position in itself attracts more investors, because they see that this is a country that is reforming various processes and it’s a country going somewhere. We have a clear destiny of where we are going as a country and that’s why we are attracting investors,” he added.

Ethiopia, whose GDP is estimated to hit $205 billion, ranks fifth, with Morocco ($152 billion) and Kenya ($104 billion) taking sixth and seventh place respectively.

Other countries that made it to the list of top 10 largest economies in Africa are Angola ($92 billion) Cote d ‘Ivoire ($86 billion) and Tanzania ($79 billion).

South Africa’s President and leader of the African National Congress (ANC) Cyril Ramaphosa termed the news of his country’s economic growth as impressive.