Is the Rwandan Economy Growing?
The Rwandan economy is seeing consistent growth throughout the 21st Century.
The Rwandan economy has bounced back incredibly well from the economic turmoil created by the civil war and genocide against the Tutsi, seeing consistent growth throughout the 21st Century. For the decade from 2001 to 2010, Rwanda was in one of the top ten fastest growing economy in the world.
Since the start of the 21st Century, Rwanda’s GDP has grown from $2.7 billion to $9.2 billion in 2016 – which amounts to an average of 14.42% growth per year. This is over double the average rate of sub-Saharan African economies during this period, which is 7.2% per year.
The Rwandan economy has continued to show strong signs of growth. The Covid-19 pandemic came in the midst of what the World Bank described as an ‘economic boom’ in Rwanda, after the economy grew by 10% in 2019.
The result of the pandemic has already been pronounced, with a drop of 12.4% in GDP in the second quarter of 2020. According to Nordic bank Nordea, the economy is expected to bounce back to a rate of 6.7% growth in 2021. Research group Focus Economics has also predicted that Rwanda will grow at a faster rate than any other economy in the world in the 2019-2024 period.