Rwanda’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for Q2 2020 (between July and September) declined by 12.4% compared to the same period in 2019, occasioned by the prolonged impact of the total lockdown imposed in March for almost two months.
The Agriculture sector, which contributes over 30% to GDP, dropped by 2% in Q2 2020 compared to the same quarter in 2019.
However, on the brighter side, the Ministry of Finance figures show that after a drop in May 2020, employment is now back to its level before the pandemic, with manufacturing, trade, food service activities, and accommodation contributing to the employment growth between May and August 2020.
“We expect growthin GDP to slow sharply as a result of coronavirus-related disruptions to economic activity. Economic activity could still expand by 1% in 2020, compared to over 9% in 2019,” Fitch Ratings said in August this year.
Covid-19-related interventions are estimated to have cost the government of Rwanda over $934 million over the two fiscal years; 2019/20 and 2020/21, which is equivalent to an increase in fiscal deficit of about 4.4% of GDP on average per year.
According to Fitch Ratings, Government gross debt rose to about 63% of GDP in the financial year 2019/20, up from about 55% in the financial year 2018/2019.
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