2019 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Estimates and Rebasing to 2017 Benchmark

Key Results:

In 2019, estimates calculated using the 2017 benchmark show that annual GDP increased by 9.4%. The level of GDP is now at Frw 9,105 billion.
Agriculture sector contributed 24%, Industry contributed 18%, Services contributed 49% while the remainder 9% was attributed to net tax on products.
Sectors grew as follows:

• Agriculture: 5%
• Industry: 16%
• Services: 8%

In agriculture, food crop growth was 4%. Export crops growth was 5% mainly due to growth in coffee and tea that increased by 7% and 3% respectively.

In industry, growth was mainly boosted by construction and manufacturing which increased by 33% and 11% respectively. Within mining, cassiterite and wolfram decreased by 23.7% and 6.6% in the quantity exported respectively while Coltan increased by 42%.
The growth in services is due to an increase of 16% in wholesale & retails trade of locally made and imported products, 12% in transport services boosted mainly by 17% increase in air transport activities, 8% growth in financial services and 10% in hotel & restaurant services among others.

2017 Benchmark

The National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda finalised new series that are based on the 2017 Benchmark year replacing old series based on 2014 Benchmark. The benchmark or rebasing consists of detailed re-analysis of all economic activities in the country, which helps to analyse economic structural changes that cannot easily be monitored on quarterly and annual basis. The International best practice recommends doing it at least once in five years but in Rwanda it is compiled every three years due to the availability of information from numerous detailed researches conducted at a higher frequency.

The high frequency of rebasing enables us to attain GDP levels that reflect the continuous changes in the economy. It also helps to adopt new methodologies and incorporate new classifications, new activities (for example computer and phones assembling) and data sources that arise in between benchmarks. Rebasing every three years also allow us to have high accuracy levels of GDP estimated.
The new benchmark indicates that previous estimates were about 98.8% accurate, we revised the 2017 GDP level by 1.2% higher than the value earlier published. There was also changes in shares of sectors.

Sectors structural changes

By: Mwizerwa Jean Claude.