December 19, 2022: Rwanda’s economy registered 10% growth in the third quarter, despite persistent global economic shocks. This growth follows 7.5% in the second quarter and 7.9% growth in the first quarter.

According to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures released by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR), in the third quarter of 2022, GDP at current market prices was estimated at Frw 3,583 billion, up from Frw 2,758 billion in the third quarter of 2021. Services contributed 47%, Agriculture 24%, Industry, 21% while Net direct taxes accounted for 8 % of GDP.

Despite the double digit growth, agriculture and industry sectors performed dismally. The underperformance of the agriculture sector is attributed to unfavorable climatic conditions which led to a 1% decrease in food crop output. Export crops also shrunk by 1%, with a 7.2% decrease in coffee output while tea production increase by 22%. Meanwhile industry was affected by a slowdown in construction subsector which registered a 17% drop.

Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Dr. Uzziel Ndagijimana explained that Government had projected a poor performance of the agriculture in the third quarter and was proactively supporting farmers with subsidized farm inputs such as fertilizers and seeds to plug shortages caused by global supply chains issues while investing in long term solutions.    

“The underwhelming performance of the agriculture sector is a result of a poor season A, which is the longest and most important. When we record a poor season A, it affects the rest of the seasons. With undependable weather patterns caused by climate change, Government is transitioning to sustainable agriculture by heavily investing in irrigation as a long term solution,” Minister Ndagijimana said.

Yusuf Murangwa, the Director General of the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda assured that the drop in the construction sector was normal and shouldn’t cause alarm.  “Downtime period is normal. However, we shall continue to monitor it. Usually in such a period is when investors build houses and wait for occupancy before resuming construction,” Yusuf Murangwa pointed out.

Poor performance in agriculture and industry was offset by significant growth of the service sector with restaurants and hotel increased by 90%, ICT by 34%, education by 26%, transport 26%, wholesale and retail increased by 20% while finance registered 8% growth. On top of that air transport grew by 81% while land transport increased by 17%

Mining and quarrying increased by 5% with a 33% increase in cassiterite exports, 13% increase in coltan exports while wolfram exports decreased by 13%. Manufacturing activities increased by 9% boosted by 11% in food processing, 9% increase in production of beverages, 24% increase in production of textiles and 8% production of wood products.