Kagame was speaking on Thursday in an interview in Dubai<\/p>\n
The growth rate is expected to increase by 7% in 2018 from about 6% this year. That compares with 2016\u2019s growth rate of 5.9 percent, which was a three-year low. Output already increased in the second and third quarters after slowing last year after infrastructure projects were completed, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe driving sectors are services; financial services, tourism, they are all combined to make this high growth. We are seeing mining activity growing very fast. We are seeing agriculture making a very good contribution, construction has picked up again,\u201dKagame said<\/p>\n
{{IMF Estimate}}<\/p>\n
The International Monetary Fund estimates growth in Rwanda will reach 7.5% by 2022, compared with a forecast 6.8% in 2018. Expansion this year could be revised downward by a percentage point to 5.2%, Mission Chief Laure Redifer told reporters in Kigali on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Growth is also being supported by stronger domestic demand and improved prices for metals the country produces including tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold, Kagame said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seen low demand for these commodities, but we see commodities are picking up again. But what is powering and driving growth is mainly the domestic demand,\u201dKagameadded.<\/p>\n
Rwanda has no immediate plans to tap international capital markets. It last raised $400 million in a Eurobond offering in 2013.<\/p>\n
There is \u201cnothing on our minds right now because there isn\u2019t as much compelling need as we had that time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Moody\u2019s Investors Services rates Rwanda\u2019s debt at B2, five levels below investment grade and cites its \u201crobust institutional framework\u201d as an important credit strength. Economic growth is being buttressed by infrastructure projects including the construction of the $700 million Bugesera international airport in Eastern Rwanda.<\/p>\n
One of the risks the economy faces is its dependence on donor funding for about a fifth of government revenue, according to Moody\u2019s. The government is planning to reduce that reliance, which has already been lowered from more than 70%, Kagame said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to continue to reduce that as we continue to grow our economy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Paul Kagame has said that Rwandan economic growth is expected to accelerate this and next years as the performance of industries including financial services, tourism and mining improve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[72],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-36185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-featured-news-home","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36185\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36185"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=36185"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=36185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}