Workers at a factory in Kigali’s Free Trade Zone. Manufacturing activities increased by 6% in Second Quarter of 2017
Rwanda’s economy has significantly grown in the second quarter at a 4% Growth Domestic Product, the Statistics body announced on Monday.
The National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) says the nominal GDP in the second quarter totaled Rwf1, 869 billion, up from Rwf1, 636 billion in the second quarter of last year.
Nominal GDP covers all of the changes in market prices that have occurred during the current year due to inflation or deflation.
At a press conference held today to announce the new figures, Yusuf Murangwa, Director General at National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) said that services sector and Agriculture and manufacturing contributed significantly to the growth.
For instance, Hotels and Restaurants grew by 9% while administrative and support services increased by 21%.
“Manufacturing increased by 6% boosted by food processing and manufacturing of Chemicals, rubber and plastics,” Yusuf Murangwa told journalists.
In the Agriculture sector, Murangwa said, good harvests like tea increased by 28% while coffee registered 8% increase – significantly contributing to the growth of exports.
On the other hand, manufacturing activities increased by 6% – mainly boosted by food processing activities which increased by 10% and manufacturing of chemicals, rubber and plastic activities grew by 28% respectively.
Activities in the industry sector increased by 1%, while construction activities decreased by 4%.
The country is promoting its ‘Made in Rwanda’ policy to reduce the biting trade imbalance.
For instance, the latest figures released by the Central bank (BNR) indicated that Rwanda’s trade deficit reduced by 25.6% in the first half of this year following an increase of 39.8% in formal export receipts and a reduction in the formal import bill by 10.6%.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Claver Gatete said Agriculture and Services will remain the driving forces in the 3rd quarter of the economy.
“Economic growth will be boosted by services, agriculture and changing landscape of industry sector. We expect Q3 and Q4 to perform well due to booming construction activities and encouraging season B,” Gatete told journalists.
