INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND PROJECTS RWANDA GROWTH UP AT 6%

Rwanda Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Amb. Claver Gatete.

KIGALI, Rwanda - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) preliminary basis report projects Rwanda’s economic outlook to be characterized by growth of about 6% as it was in the Policy Support Instrument (PSI) programme, rising gradually to 7.5% in 2015.

This was said by the Mission Chief IMF Paulo Drummond while in Kigali last week to review Rwanda’s PSI. This is a process done twice a year with the aim of supporting the country with different developed projects under the programme.

“IMF together with the Central Bank of Rwanda, expect inflation to be 3.2% by end December and this is reflected on how the agriculture sector will perform plus on issues of aids disbursement,” Drummond said.

IMF’s main role under the PSI programme is the only way of engaging with Rwanda in a way that economic successes that the country has had in the past continue in the future.

The discussions taken before therefore focused mainly on the short term challenge of how to support growth against such a background and also on how to preserve and prevent imbalances from appearing in the next coming months.

“There was good performance in terms of the economic performance in the fiscal area both in terms of public financial management and in terms of revenue mobilization which is in line with the PSI target,” Drummond said.

IMF and BNR both agree that keeping the current stance of the monetary policy is appropriate which is aimed at closely monitoring the developments in the months to come to make sure that there are no build ups of pressure in the foreign exchange market.

On the issue of investment in projects, Drummond said IMF understands well that government of Rwanda has been moving ahead in implementation of well designed and appropriately specified priority areas for large investments which may include both national and regional projects.

However the issue identified here is moving a ahead with the investment planning, ensuring proper project implementation and making sure that there is a timeline for all these projects going forward.

Under the PSI, IMF offer Rwanda its global intellectual capacity as people overseeing the global economy helping the country access donor support to implement clearly drawn programmes.

“IMF is therefore here to look at the projects that will be in the pipeline for the next 3 years to support Rwanda’s economy. Such projects are looked through to find out capacity of funding them, the implications since some of the money is domestic and therefore the country needs to do different things at the domestic level to raise resources among others,” Amb. Claver Gatete, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning in Rwanda said.

Gatete said to maintain a sustainable economic growth, the country was focusing mainly on exports, what areas of exports the country should concentrate on, and apart from exports how does the country create a conducive environment to bring in more foreign direct investment, what more can be done to boost the tourism sector among others.

“This is why we look at stabilizing the Rwanda franc so as to create more forex to meet imports that the country does not produce,” he said.

Rwanda’s success with the first PSI programme 2010-2013 is attributed to support from IMF and the country believe this will be so with the next PSI (2014-2016).

In the case of the country having the private sector leading in driving the economy forward, the country needs to look into the cost of doing business which will help it become globally competitive according to IMF.

East African Business Week