The World Bank on Thursday warned sub-Saharan Africa could slip into its first recession in a quarter of century because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We project that economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa will decline from 2.4 percent in 2019 to -2.1 to -5.1 percent in 2020, the first recession in the region in 25 years,” the Bank said in an assessment.

The virus has arrived late in Africa compared to elsewhere but is spreading rapidly in some countries, and the continent is highly vulnerable to declining trade and tourism and falling prices for oil and mineral exports, it said.

“The Covid-19 pandemic is testing the limits of societies and economies across the world, and African countries are likely to be hit particularly hard,” said Hafez Ghanem, the Bank’s vice president for Africa.

The impact on African countries will vary, the report said.

It warned, however, that real gross domestic product was forecast to “fall sharply” in the three largest economies — Nigeria, South Africa and Angola — because of “persistently weak growth and investment” and declining commodity prices.