Lagarde: Economic growth in central Africa nations now 2%

Economic growth in the six-nation Central African CEMAC bloc dropped to 2 percent in 2015, International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde said on Friday.

Growth in the bloc, which is made up of Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, was expected to top 4 percent according to earlier IMF estimates.

Persistently low oil prices have impacted the resource-rich region.