Uganda Economic Update, 12th Edition, November 2018 : Developing the Agri-Food System for Inclusive Economic Growth
Real GDP growth rebounded strongly to 6.1 percent in FY17/18, from 3.9 percent the previous year. The rebound was largely driven by a pick-up in investments and exports, and on the back of strengthened credit to the private sector and good weather....
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/678231542382500879/Uganda-Economic-Update-12th-Edition-Developing-the-Agri-Food-System-for-Inclusive-Economic-Growth http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31003 |
| Summary: | Real GDP growth rebounded strongly to
6.1 percent in FY17/18, from 3.9 percent the previous year.
The rebound was largely driven by a pick-up in investments
and exports, and on the back of strengthened credit to the
private sector and good weather. Consequently, services,
particularly information and communications, sustained
strong growth, and food crop production recovered. Inper
capita terms, however, this rebound translates into a 3.1
percent growth rate, because of the rapidly growing
population. Moreover, the heavy reliance on rain-fed and
subsistence agriculture drives the volatility in economic
growth at the margin, with spillover effects on
exportearnings, and a considerable impact on the poor’s
income. Despite the rebound in economic growth in FY17/18,
fiscal revenues stagnated, while the expenditure mix
deteriorated further, with excessive current spending and
under-execution in capital spending. Current spending
exceeded last year’s outcome by a striking 1.4 percent of
GDP and was above the budgeted amount by 32 percent. At the
same time, the larger current spending was not used to
finance investments in human capital.Therefore, one of the
government’s priorities should be to rein in current
spending and thereby keep public debt under control.
Meanwhile, capital spending was 0.6 percent of GDP lower
compared to the year before and fell short of the budgeted
amount by 60 percent. Compared to peers, capital spending in
Uganda stood at 4.4 percent of GDP in FY17/18, which is less
than half the size ofRwanda’s capital outlays at 10.3
percent of GDP, and only 60 percent of Kenya’s at 7 percent
of GDP. Combined with deficiencies in the ‘quality at entry’
of projects, cost escalations, and poor quality of some
completed projects, this under-spending is constraining
Uganda’s ambitions for rapid growth and socio-economic
transformation. Therefore, concerted efforts are required to
improve public investment management. |
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