The October 2020 Sub-Saharan Africa: A Difficult Road to Recov" Facs with an unprecsented health and ecomme crisis, cuntries have acted swiftly b protect reir from tre worst of the crisis But amid high eccmmic arc sccial costs. many have been reopening their eccmmies The carrentoutlcok for 202021 is broadly unchanged from the June update. w'th activity in 2020 projected to contract by 30 percent, still the worst outcome on reconf This represents a drop in real get capita income of 53 *tent, bMging per capita inmmes back to 2013 levels. For 2021. regional growth should recover modestly to 3' percent This outlook is subject to some key dcwnside risks, partku*ly regarding the path of the COVID-19 gardemic, tre resince of the region's health systems. arc the availability of external financing. Policymakers aiming to rekindle their emncmies now have fewer resources at their disposal and will likely face some difficult choices On current trends, significant financing gaps are likely to prevail, and without significant additional financial assistance. many ccuntries will struggle to simply maintain macroeconomic stability while also meeting the basic needs of their populations. The need for transformative domestic reforms to p.romote resiEence (including revenue mobilization. Sgitalizatzn. arc fostering better transparency and gcn'ernance) is more urgent than ever _