{"id":53718,"date":"2025-04-04T15:28:16","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T15:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/imf-lauds-rwanda-s-economic-resilience-despite-global-and-domestic-challenges\/"},"modified":"2025-04-07T09:46:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T09:46:10","slug":"imf-lauds-rwanda-s-economic-resilience-despite-global-and-domestic-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/imf-lauds-rwanda-s-economic-resilience-despite-global-and-domestic-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"IMF lauds Rwanda\u2019s economic resilience despite global and domestic challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Led by Ruben Atoyan, the IMF team held discussions with Rwandan authorities from March 24 to April 4, 2025, and reached a staff-level agreement, affirming the country\u2019s strong economic fundamentals and commitment to structural reforms despite a challenging global economic environment.<\/p>\n<p>Rwanda recorded an impressive GDP growth rate of 8.9% in 2024, making it one of the fastest-growing economies in sub-Saharan Africa. The growth was fueled by strong performances in agriculture, construction, trade, tourism, transport, and telecommunications sectors. Labour market indicators also improved, with increased participation and a reduction in the unemployment rate.<\/p>\n<p>Inflation remained stable at 4.8% by the end of 2024\u2014within the National Bank of Rwanda\u2019s target range\u2014thanks to improved food production and effective monetary policy. <\/p>\n<p>The fiscal deficit was lower than anticipated, as the government collected more tax revenues than projected and implemented well-targeted capital spending and VAT refunds.<\/p>\n<p>Rwanda\u2019s financial sector was described as sound, with robust credit growth and a decline in non-performing loans. The country also saw external pressures ease, with Q4 exports improving and sustained inflows from development partners helping to stabilise the Rwandan franc, which depreciated by 9.4%\u2014a marked improvement from 18% in 2023. <\/p>\n<p>International reserves rose to the equivalent of 5.4 months of import cover, reinforcing Rwanda\u2019s ability to withstand future external shocks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll quantitative targets under the PCI were met,\u201d Atoyan noted, adding that key structural reforms\u2014particularly in domestic revenue mobilisation, state-owned enterprise oversight, corporate governance, and transparency in financial statistics\u2014were successfully implemented.<\/p>\n<p>The IMF also highlighted the February 2025 completion of Rwanda\u2019s Standby Credit Facility (SCF), which was instrumental in addressing external imbalances and shoring up foreign reserves.<\/p>\n<p>Looking ahead, the IMF welcomed Rwanda\u2019s newly [approved tax package->https:\/\/en.igihe.com\/business\/article\/inside-rwanda-s-new-tax-policy-changes?var_mode=calcul], which is expected to further boost domestic revenue and increase the tax-to-GDP ratio. <\/p>\n<p>Some of the new taxes approved by the Cabinet in February include a 15% excise duty on cosmetic and beauty products, a 15% adjustment in the fuel levy per litre, and an 18% Value Added Tax (VAT) on mobile phones. There is also an increase in taxes on gambling activities, with the tax on Gross Gambling Revenue (GGR) rising from 13% to 40%, and the withholding tax on winnings increasing from 15% to 25%. A tourism levy was also introduced, among other fiscal measures.<\/p>\n<p>Major strategic projects\u2014including the second phase of Bugesera International Airport and the expansion of RwandAir, in partnership with the Qatar Investment Authority\u2014are set to reinforce long-term growth and enhance regional connectivity.<\/p>\n<p>The IMF Executive Board is expected to consider the fifth review of Rwanda\u2019s PCI in May 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The PCI was introduced in December 2022 to support Rwanda\u2019s reform agenda without requiring financial resources from the IMF.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-84828 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/t5z3iaurnbpvhakfifyfzrrq4i.jpg\" alt=\"The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has praised Rwanda\u2019s economic performance and resilience, following the conclusion of a two-week mission assessing the country\u2019s reform progress under the fifth review of the Policy Coordination Instrument (PCI).\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has praised Rwanda\u2019s economic performance and resilience, following the conclusion of a two-week mission assessing the country\u2019s reform progress under the fifth review of the Policy Coordination Instrument (PCI).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000084827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[72],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-53718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","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":{"id":2000084827,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/t5z3iaurnbpvhakfifyfzrrq4i.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/t5z3iaurnbpvhakfifyfzrrq4i.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/t5z3iaurnbpvhakfifyfzrrq4i.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/t5z3iaurnbpvhakfifyfzrrq4i.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/t5z3iaurnbpvhakfifyfzrrq4i.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/t5z3iaurnbpvhakfifyfzrrq4i.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53718","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\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000084827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53718"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=53718"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=53718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}