Angola's double-digit growth record to end -analysts

By Henrique Almeida

LUANDA, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Angola's economy could grow less than 6.3 percent in 2009, well below the double-digit growth that has sustained the oil-producing African nation since 2002, analysts said on Tuesday.

Angola, which rivals Nigeria as sub-Saharan Africa's biggest oil producer, has averaged 15 percent a year GDP growth since the end of a civil war in 2002, making it one of the world's fastest growing economies.

It has lured billions in foreign investment.

But Alves da Rocha, a leading Angolan economist, said weakness in the global economy and a sharp drop in oil prices should put the brakes on growth and hamper government plans to rebuild the country and improve the lives of ordinary Angolans.