Uganda’s economy grows despite Covid-19 pandemic

KAMPALA- Despite the negative impact of Covid-19, Uganda’s economy expanded by Shs4 trillion in the financial year 2019/20, according to the statistics released by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) yesterday
“The size of the economy has increased to Shs126 trillion in 2019/2020 from Uganda Shs122 trillion in 2018/19,” the UBOS boss, Dr Chris Mukiza, said.

Dr Mukiza said the economy could have performed better than it has, had it not been the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dr Mukiza said the preliminary estimates of Gross Domestic Product for Uganda during the Fiscal Year 2019/2020 indicate that the economy grew by 3.1 per cent.

Dr Mukiza said the gross value added for Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing activities grew by 4.2 per cent in 2019/2020 compared to 5.3 per cent registered in 2018/19.

“The performance in Agricultural activities is largely attributed to the good performance in food crop growing activities which registered a growth of 4.3 per cent in 2019/2020 when compared to the 1.5 per cent growth in 2018/19, livestock growing activities grew by 7.7 per cent in 2019/2020 compared to 7.3 per cent in 2018/19,” he said.
Dr Mukiza added: “However, fishing activities registered a slower growth of 1.6 per cent in 2019/2020 compared to 41.4 per cent recorded in the previous fiscal year, leading to a slower growth in the Agriculture sector during the fiscal year 2019/2020.”

Dr Mukiza explained: “The slower growth in the sector is mainly attributed to the poor performance in manufacturing activities (1.4 per cent in 2019/2020 compared to 7.8 per cent in the previous year), mining & quarrying activities declined by 2.8 per cent in 2019/2020 compared to the 33.4 per cent growth in the previous year and construction activities registered a slowdown growth of 5.4 percent in 2019/2020 compared to the 14.2 per cent in 2018/19.”

On the services sector he said the sector registered a slower growth of 3.6 per cent in 2019/2020 compared to the 5.7 per cent growth in 2018/19.

“In this sector, information and communication activities grew by 34.3 per cent in 2019/2020 compared to a decline of 0.6 per cent in 2018/19. In addition, public administration grew by 13.0 per cent in 2019/2020 compared to a 3.2 per cent growth in 2018/19, Professional, scientific and technical activities grew by 4.4 per cent in 2019/2020 compared to 2.9 per cent in 2018/19,” he said.

He explained that the strong performance in the three sub activities was undermined by the poor performance in trade and repairs (minus 1.7 per cent in 2019/2020 compared to a positive 4.9 per cent recorded in 2018/19). Adding that transport and storage activities declined by 1.5 per cent in 2019/2020 compared to a growth of 2.2 per cent in 2018/19.