Uganda Economic Update, 16th Edition, December 2020 : Investing in Uganda’s Youth

Uganda’s real GDP grew at 2.9 percent in FY20, less than half the 6.8 percent recorded in FY19, due to the effects of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis, and is expected to grow at a similar level in FY21, but downside risks are high. Economic activ...

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Main Author: World Bank
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/568041606834715531/Uganda-Economic-Update-16th-Edition-Investing-in-Uganda-s-Youth
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34893
id okr-10986-34893
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spelling okr-10986-348932021-04-23T14:02:10Z Uganda Economic Update, 16th Edition, December 2020 : Investing in Uganda’s Youth World Bank ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC RECESSION CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT PANDEMIC RESPONSE HUMAN CAPITAL TRANSPORT CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT FISCAL TRENDS YOUTH EMPLOYMENT DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS EDUCATION BUDGET HEALTH EXPENDITURE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK RISKS Uganda’s real GDP grew at 2.9 percent in FY20, less than half the 6.8 percent recorded in FY19, due to the effects of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis, and is expected to grow at a similar level in FY21, but downside risks are high. Economic activity stalled during the latter part of the fiscal year due to a domestic lockdown that lasted over four months, border closures for everything but essential cargo, and the spillover effects of disruption in global demand and global supply chains due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This resulted in a sharp contraction in public investment and deceleration in private consumption, which hit the industrial and service sectors hard, particularly the informal service sector. On a calendar year basis, real GDP growth is expected to contract by up to 1 percent in 2020, compared to 7.5 percent growth in 2019, and, as a result, real per capita GDP growth is expected to contract by about 4.5 percent. Even if GDP growth rebounds strongly by 2022, the level of per capita GDP is likely to remain well below its pre-COVID trajectory. As a result of these impacts, the COVID-19 crisis is threatening to reverse some of the gains made on structural transformation and the declining poverty trend of the past decade. This transformation was characterized by a reduction in the workforce employed in on-farm agriculture and a take-off in industrial production, largely in agro-processing. However, following the COVID shock, there have already been widespread firm closures, permanent layoffs in industry and services, a rapid slowdown of activity particularly in the urban informal sector, and a movement of labor back to farming. At the same time, household incomes have fallen, which is concerning given the high levels of vulnerability to poverty, limited social safety nets, and impacts this might have on human capital development and Uganda’s capacity to benefit from its demographic transition. 2020-12-07T20:28:28Z 2020-12-07T20:28:28Z 2020-12 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/568041606834715531/Uganda-Economic-Update-16th-Edition-Investing-in-Uganda-s-Youth http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34893 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work Economic & Sector Work :: Economic Updates and Modeling Africa Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE) Uganda
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic ECONOMIC GROWTH
ECONOMIC RECESSION
CORONAVIRUS
COVID-19
PANDEMIC IMPACT
PANDEMIC RESPONSE
HUMAN CAPITAL
TRANSPORT
CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT
FISCAL TRENDS
YOUTH EMPLOYMENT
DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS
EDUCATION BUDGET
HEALTH EXPENDITURE
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
RISKS
spellingShingle ECONOMIC GROWTH
ECONOMIC RECESSION
CORONAVIRUS
COVID-19
PANDEMIC IMPACT
PANDEMIC RESPONSE
HUMAN CAPITAL
TRANSPORT
CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT
FISCAL TRENDS
YOUTH EMPLOYMENT
DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS
EDUCATION BUDGET
HEALTH EXPENDITURE
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
RISKS
World Bank
Uganda Economic Update, 16th Edition, December 2020 : Investing in Uganda’s Youth
geographic_facet Africa
Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE)
Uganda
description Uganda’s real GDP grew at 2.9 percent in FY20, less than half the 6.8 percent recorded in FY19, due to the effects of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis, and is expected to grow at a similar level in FY21, but downside risks are high. Economic activity stalled during the latter part of the fiscal year due to a domestic lockdown that lasted over four months, border closures for everything but essential cargo, and the spillover effects of disruption in global demand and global supply chains due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This resulted in a sharp contraction in public investment and deceleration in private consumption, which hit the industrial and service sectors hard, particularly the informal service sector. On a calendar year basis, real GDP growth is expected to contract by up to 1 percent in 2020, compared to 7.5 percent growth in 2019, and, as a result, real per capita GDP growth is expected to contract by about 4.5 percent. Even if GDP growth rebounds strongly by 2022, the level of per capita GDP is likely to remain well below its pre-COVID trajectory. As a result of these impacts, the COVID-19 crisis is threatening to reverse some of the gains made on structural transformation and the declining poverty trend of the past decade. This transformation was characterized by a reduction in the workforce employed in on-farm agriculture and a take-off in industrial production, largely in agro-processing. However, following the COVID shock, there have already been widespread firm closures, permanent layoffs in industry and services, a rapid slowdown of activity particularly in the urban informal sector, and a movement of labor back to farming. At the same time, household incomes have fallen, which is concerning given the high levels of vulnerability to poverty, limited social safety nets, and impacts this might have on human capital development and Uganda’s capacity to benefit from its demographic transition.
format Report
author World Bank
author_facet World Bank
author_sort World Bank
title Uganda Economic Update, 16th Edition, December 2020 : Investing in Uganda’s Youth
title_short Uganda Economic Update, 16th Edition, December 2020 : Investing in Uganda’s Youth
title_full Uganda Economic Update, 16th Edition, December 2020 : Investing in Uganda’s Youth
title_fullStr Uganda Economic Update, 16th Edition, December 2020 : Investing in Uganda’s Youth
title_full_unstemmed Uganda Economic Update, 16th Edition, December 2020 : Investing in Uganda’s Youth
title_sort uganda economic update, 16th edition, december 2020 : investing in uganda’s youth
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2020
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/568041606834715531/Uganda-Economic-Update-16th-Edition-Investing-in-Uganda-s-Youth
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34893
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