GABORONE, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Botswana's economy surged in the 2018/19 financial year, as continued good performance of non-mining sectors and recovery in the mining sector set the stage for modest growth in the southern African country's domestic economic activities.
Real gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 4.4 percent in the 12 months to March 2019, compared to a lower expansion of 3.8 percent in the corresponding period in 2018, said a statement released by Bank of Botswana following a Monetary Policy Committee meeting Thursday.
"This (the 4.4 percent growth on GDP) was mainly attributable to the continued good performance of the non-mining sectors and recovery in mining output," said the statement.
According to the statement, mining output expanded by 5.3 percent in the year to March 2019, compared to a contraction of 0.3 percent in the corresponding period in 2018.
It stated that non-mining GDP grew by 4.3 percent in the year to March 2019, the same growth rate as in the corresponding period in the previous year.
GDP is projected to increase by 4.2 percent and 4.8 percent in 2019 and 2020 respectively because the significant influences on domestic economic performance include conducive financing conditions as indicated by accommodative monetary policy and sound financial environment that facilitate policy transmission, intermediation and risk mitigation, it said.
Moreover, it is anticipated that the increase in government spending, as well as the implementation of two initiatives including the business environment reforms, should also be supportive of economic activities.
Overall, it has been observed that the economy is to operate close to, but below full capacity in the short to medium term, thus posing no upside risk to the inflation outlook.
