KIGALI, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda's economy growth dropped to 2.3 percent for the financial year 2019-2020 from 8.8 percent recorded the year before, the National Bank of Rwanda said in a report released on Monday.
"The service sector grew at 1.6 percent compared to 8.4 percent in 2018-2019, the most affected sector by the COVID-19 pandemic, while agriculture sector grew by 2.1 percent due to unfavorable weather conditions compared to 4.4 percent in 2018-19," the report said.
The industrial sector grew at 2.6 percent mainly due to completion of mega infrastructure projects, compared to 14.7 percent in 2018-2019, it said.
The report also noted that the country's trade deficit widened by 23.7 percent in 2019-2020, amounting to nearly 1.6 billion U.S. dollars.
Trade guarantees for exports decelerated to 44.9 percent from 46.7 in 2018-2019 due to reduced export volumes, according to the central bank.
Total export volume decreased by 15.2 percent, while total export receipts increased by 15.1 percent to 1.3 billion dollars, following increased receipts from gold exports of 754.6 percent, it said, adding that all other export categories dropped sharply after the COVID-19 pandemic hit global demand and domestic economic activities.
Meanwhile, in 2019-2020, the total import value increased by 19.7 percent, standing at 2,884.37 million dollars on rising demand for all import categories, according to the report.
It, however, noted that despite the COVID-19 crisis, the bank ensured price stability and a sound financial system, whereby headline inflation remained within the target band of 2 to 8 percent, at an average of 6.3 percent for the financial year 2019-2020 from 0.8 percent recorded in the previous period. Enditem
