The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Wednesday said that Real GDP growth in Africa is expected to accelerate to 6.2 percent this year, up from 5.5 percent in 2006.

Since the beginning of this decade, growth in sub-Saharan Africa has averaged a little over 4.5 percent a year, the strongest seven-year period since the beginning of the 1970s, said the IMF in its annual World Economic Outlook.

"These developments have raised hopes that Africa has entered a period of strong and sustained growth that will begin to make deeper inroads into the extremely high poverty rates that still plague the continent," said the report.

It said that the projected acceleration in growth in 2007 is driven by oil-exporting countries. In Nigeria, for example, non-oil GDP has grown by an average of 8 percent over the past three years.

But the report also warned that despite this positive outlook, risks are tilted somewhat to the downside for African countries.

"A sharper-than-expected slowing in global growth would hurt the region, particularly through its impact on commodity prices," said the report.

There are also country-specific risks. In Nigeria, violence in the Niger Delta region may prevent the restoration of oil production as assumed in the baseline forecast.

In South Africa, the huge current account deficit and inflation could result in a sharper growth slowdown. Given the importance of the country, particularly for the rest of southern Africa, any such slowing could negatively affect other countries.

"Despite the improved growth performance, only a few African countries will reach the target set by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving extreme poverty by 2015 on current trends," said the report.