ECONOMIC growth across Africa averaged 3,5% in 1999, much the same as in 1998, African Development Bank (AfDB) President Omar Kabbaj said on Monday, citing provisional figures. He told a meeting of ambassadors to Ivory Coast that the Asian crisis and the spread of conflict in some African countries meant that growth rates of 4,0% in the mid-1990s could not be maintained in 1998 and 1999.