Ebola not to upset Africa's overall growth: IMF

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which has claimed 4,500 lives, will have minimum impact on continent's overall growth, a top International Monetary Fund (IMF) official said Thursday.

Addressing a press conference after presenting the 2014 IMF regional economic outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa here, IMF director for Africa Antoinette Sayeh said the three countries's - Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone - share in Africa's gross domestic product (GDP) is merely one percent and therefore unlikely to upset the continent's overall growth, Xinhua reported.

According to the IMF's projections, the continent economy will grow 5.8 percent next year as against 5 percent in 2014.

The disease will, however, significantly hurt the economy of the three hard-hit countries.

She said the IMF's growth forecasts had already taken into account the projected impact of the Ebola outbreak if it stretches to about mid-year next year.

Using the baseline that the epidemic will be contained by June next year, the IMF estimates the economies of Liberia and Sierra Leone to be affected by about four percent and Guinea by 1.5 percent in 2014.