Bank’s Africa’s Pulse report said this year’s growth will be between minus 2.1 percent to minus 5.1 percent NAIROBI: The World Bank forecasts the sub-Saharan Africa region’s economic growth for 2020 will contract because of the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, going into a recession for the first time in 25 years, it said on Thursday. The bank’s Africa’s Pulse report said this year’s growth will be between minus 2.1 percent to minus 5.1 percent from 2.4 percent last year, and that the coronavirus will cost sub-Saharan Africa $37 billion to $79 billion in output losses this year due to trade and value chain disruption, among other factors.