World Bank predicts Rwanda's growth to accelerate in coming years

KIGALI, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Owing to the booming of private and public investment and agriculture production, Rwanda's economic growth in the second half of 2017 is expected to reach 5.2 percent and will further accelerate in the next two years, a World Bank report said Wednesday.

In medium-term, Rwanda's economy will benefit from reduced external imbalances, expected recovery of prices of traditional exports of minerals, tea, and coffee, and existing competitive exchange rate, said the 11th edition of the World Bank Rwanda Economic Update entitled "Rethinking Urbanization in Rwanda: from Demographic Transition to Economic Transformation."

"Targeting public investments to areas where high economic returns and addressing fiscal contingencies is important for maintaining the fiscal space which has narrowed in recent years," World Bank Senior Country Economist Aghassi Mkrtchyan said in a statement released here in Kigali.

The report confirms the observation that the central African country has been urbanizing rapidly, and an increase in the urban population has been accompanied by the physical expansion of cities, notably in the periphery of Kigali as well as around secondary cities, said the statement. Enditem