Economic Overview

A look at W h e r e We A r e

Regional Update – GDP and Inflation

The East African region economies registered growth with Rwanda leading at 8.6% in 2018, followed by Kenya 6.3%, and Uganda 6.1%. Inflation on the other hand, remained at a single digit, at 2.9%, with Rwanda recording the lowest rate of 1.4%, Uganda 2.6%, Tanzania 3.5% and Kenya 4.6%.

National Update

The GDP growth rate was 7.0% in 2018 compared to 6.8% in 2017. The rapidly growing economic activities include: Arts and Entertainment (13.7%), construction (12.9%), Transportation and storage (11.8%), ICT (9.1%) and professional, scientific and technical activities (9.9%) and agriculture (5.3%). This growth is attributed to the government’s efforts in implementing infrastructure projects, stable supply of electricity, improvement in transport services and favourable weather conditions that enabled good harvests of food and cash crops.
Others:
Shilling – Relatively stable
Credit to Private Sector – Increased by 10.6%
Broad money supply (M3) – Increased by 4.9%
Foreign currency reserve – 4.3 months of imports (national threshold is 4.0)