COVID-19 slows down Rwanda's economic growth significantly in Q1, 2020

20 Juin 2020

Kigali, Rwanda, June 20 (Infosplusgabon) - Rwanda registered a 3.6% Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in the First Quarter of 2020, a slow down due to COVID-19 compared to 9.4% growth in 2019, the National Institute of Statistics confirmed on Saturday.

Agriculture decreased by 1% and reduced 0.1 percentage points to overall GDP growth where food crops production decreased by 2% when compared to benchmarking estimates calculated in 2017 prices, the institute said.

Experts from the institute said the economic growth for the second quarter of 2020 will be mostly affected and recovery is expected in Quarter 3 and Quarter 4.

Industry growth was 2% and contributed 0.3 percentage points to GDP growth. The main contributors in the industry sector were Construction activities which grew by 5% and Manufacturing activities which grew by 6%. Mining and Quarrying activities however decreased by 26%.

Manufacturing activities grew by 6%, due to an increase of 11% in food processing; 11% in Textiles, clothing & leather and 5% in production of Chemicals and plastic products boosted by the increase in the production of Soaps and other cleaning products. However, Wood & paper printing and Non-metallic mineral products declined by 11% and 6% respectively.

The service sector grew by 6 percent and contributed 2.6 percentage points to overall GDP growth, the institute said.

FIN/ INFOSPLUSGABON/HGB/GABON2020

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