Following a week-long visit by its staff to Kinshasa, the IMF projected growth at 8 percent this year but warned of downside risks from the armed conflict to the country's east. A rebel group known as the M23 staged a major offensive in east Congo last year, adding to decades of militia violence in the central African country's mineral-rich provinces.
Mineral wealth, including vast reserves of copper, cobalt and gold, has stoked conflict between militias, government troops and even foreign invaders.
It added that mining production, which grew at around 20 percent, was stronger than expected and more than compensated for a downward revision of non-extractive growth to 3.2 percent, down from 3.9 percent.
Annual inflation reached 13.1 percent at the end of 2022 on account of higher food, energy, and transport prices, it said. Uncertainty ahead of Congo's general elections in December, the continued effects of the war in Ukraine and adverse terms-of-trade shocks could also affect growth forecasts, it said. Preliminary data suggests that Congo's current account deficit widened last year due to strong import growth and worse terms of trade, although the central bank reported more gross international reserves than initially projected.
But the overall fiscal balance for 2022 is estimated to
have deteriorated due to arrears payments and increased spending
on insecurity in the east, the IMF said.
(Reporting by Sofia Christensen; Editing by James Macharia
Chege)
