The country’s economic performance is remarkable, strong policies have played a key role in maintaining annual GDP growth at around 8 percent since 2000; IMF staff said in a regular review of the Rwanda’s economy.
The same review pointed out that the poorest have benefited strongly from the growth performance over this period, with per capita consumption growing faster at the lower end of the distribution of consumption.
IMF staff noted that the Rwandan economy is recovering from a weak agricultural performance and delays in project implementation, with growth bouncing back to 6 percent in 2014 from 4 ½ percent in 2013, and inflation well contained at 3 percent in 2014.
The IMF staff report also projected growth of about 6 percent in 2015, while inflation is expected to converge next year to the authorities’ target of 5 percent.
The government has been successful in lowering poverty, with the poverty headcount ratio the number of people below a basic needs poverty line as a proportion of the population falling from 60 percent to 45 percent between 2000 and 2011.
The government has targeted the agricultural sector, employment, and gender in its goal of sharing the fruits of its sustained high growth performance more widely.
Policies that have contributed to improved agricultural productivity and output can be grouped into four categories, and many of these are ongoing.
The ongoing shifting in jobs market by the government is targeting the strengthening of the labor market to harness the potential provided by Rwanda’s shifting employment demographics.
The transformation of the Rwandan economy has been more rapid than many others on the continent with a larger decline in the share of agriculture in employment.
However, most of the shift in employment has gone into low value–added services with the change in the employment share of industry barely positive.
With a large demographic surge ahead, the government is developing policies to promote the growth of household enterprises and small and medium-sized businesses. These include
There is a strong gender component to the government’s policies. The labor participation rate is similar for men and women, while Rwanda has the world’s highest female participation in the two chambers of parliament, at 53 percent in 2013. Moreover, net attendance rates and completion rates in primary education are higher for girls than for boys.
These outcomes reflect an approach that involves affirmative action to correct gender-related imbalances, gender mainstreaming, and the integration of a gender perspective in policies, activities, and budgets in all sectors.