Home Business & TechEconomy Rwanda’s GDP Registers 6.1% Growth

Rwanda’s GDP Registers 6.1% Growth

by Dan Ngabonziza
8:28 pm

Yusuf Murangwa, Director General of National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda presenting the GDP numbers to the media

Rwanda’s Economy continued to register significant growth in the final quarter of last year with the Growth Domestic Product (GDP) standing at 6.1%.

In 2017, according to the Director-General of National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, Yusuf Murangwa, GDP at current market prices increased to Rwf7, 597 billion, up from Rwf6, 672 billion in 2016.

Murangwa said that the annual performance was mainly triggered by the high performance of quarter four which marked a 10.5% GDP growth compared to 1.7% in the first quarter, 4%  and 8% in second and third quarters respectively.

“Quarter four was very good. It made a great impact on the general growth,” said Murangwa while presenting the fourth quarter statistics to journalists, Tuesday.

Murangwa said that agriculture grew by around 10% because of the very good harvest in season B and C.

Industry sector also grew by 10% mainly due to mining which grew by 51% while manufacturing especially in food processing increased by around 16%.

Murangwa added that the continued growth was also due to service sector which was mainly driven by wholesale and retail trade which increased by around 19 percent.

Murangwa told journalists that Air transport growth triggered the sector to increase by 16% in the fourth quarter of 2017.

According to Murangwa, that picture of the quarter four together with initial quarters are translated in a GDP growth of 6.1% in real terms growth in 2017 compared to 2016.

This implies that as end of last year 2017 GDP growth stood at Rwf7,597 billion up from around Rwf6672 billion in 2016.

“Services continued to lead in terms of sector contribution at around 46 percent, followed by agriculture (31%) and Industry (16%). When you look at the whole year together, you see that Agriculture was 7% growth, Industry 4% and services 8%,” Murangwa said.

As a result, estimates calculated in 2014 prices show that GDP was 6.1 percent higher in real terms compared to 2016.

Gross domestic product is the best way to measure country’s economy by summing up the total value of everything produced by all the people and companies in the country.

Expenditure GDP in 2017 saw private final consumption expenditure register 76 percent of the GDP while government final consumption expenditure was 15 percent.

The Private Final Consumption Expenditure (PFCE) is the expenditure incurred on final consumption of goods and services by the resident households and non-profit institutions serving households (NPISH).

Government final consumption expenditure (GFCE) is an aggregate transaction amount on a country’s national income accounts representing government expenditure on goods and services that are used for the direct satisfaction of individual needs (individual consumption) or collective needs of members of the community.

Meanwhile, Murangwa said that imports of goods and services increased by 10 percent at constant 2014 prices, while exports of goods and services increased by 34 percent.

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