(Bloomberg) -- Sub-Saharan Africa’s growth will be hit by China’s slowing economy, the International Monetary Fund said, urging countries in the region to do more to adapt to slowing import demand and declining Chinese economic engagement.

A one percentage point decline in China’s real GDP growth rate leads to about 0.25 percentage point decline in in sub-Saharan Africa’s total GDP growth within a year, IMF economists including Hany Abdel-Latif wrote in a report. Oil exporters would experience the largest impact, it added.

China’s economic growth has slowed in recent years due to a property downturn and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, with long term forecasts predicting annual growth of around 4% over the remainder of this decade. That’s down from about 7% in the decade before the pandemic.

Negative impacts on the region from a slowing China would be transmitted largely through exports of commodities such as oil, the IMF said. China is sub-Saharan Africa’s largest export partner, buying one fifth of the region’s exports.

Non oil-exporting countries would see a smaller growth loss, of 0.2 percentage points of GDP growth from a one percentage point growth slowdown in China, the report said.

The IMF also pointed out that Chinese lending and direct investment to sub-Saharan Africa has been falling since 2017. “The region needs to adapt to China’s growth slowdown and declining economic engagement,” it said.

Countries in the region could focus more on expanding inter-African trade and making greater investments in infrastructure and human capital, it said.

About half the region’s public debt is commercial borrowing often carrying higher interest rates, the report added. China now accounts for 6% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s sovereign debt, concentrated in five countries: Angola, Kenya, Zambia, Cameroon and Nigeria.

“Debt owed to China has not been the principal contributor to the region’s public debt surge in the past 15 years” the report added.

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