GABORONE, July 3 (Xinhua) -- The Botswana economy saw a solid start to the year with a 4.8 percent growth in the first quarter, official data showed Tuesday.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached 4,152.5 U.S. dollars in the first three months of 2018, up 0.9 percent year on year at comparable prices - a 1.7 percent decline from the growth rate in the previous quarter, according to Statistics Botswana.
"The increase (in GDP) was attributed to real value added of mining, transport and communications and finance and business services which increased by 12.1, 6.5 and 5.4 percent respectively," Botswana's Statistician General Burton Mguni told a press conference in Francistown, Botswana's second largest city.
Mguni said the increase in the real mining value added of 12.1 percent was mainly driven by diamond value added which increased by 11.5 percent.
He added that diamond production in carats increased by 11.5 percent in the first quarter of 2018 compared to a decrease of 2.5 percent recorded in the same quarter of 2017.
"Diamond prices continued to show improvement during the first quarter of 2018," he said.
According to Mguni, total final consumption expenditure recorded an increase of 4.1 percent in the first quarter of 2018, whereas in the same quarter of the previous year it rose by 2.1 percent.
Meanwhile, non-mining GDP increased by 4.2 percent in the first quarter of 2018 compared to 5.7 percent registered in the same quarter of the previous year.
