According to official figures from Rwanda's National Institute of Statistics, the country's service sector saw a significant recovery in the first quarter of this year, driving a 9.2% increase in Rwanda's economy compared to the same period in 2022.
According to the figures issued on Monday, the services sector contributed 44% of the GDP as a result of a robust rebound in the MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions/events) industry.
The Women Deliver 2023 Conference (WD2023) will take place in Rwanda from July 17–20. There will be at least 6,000 attendees in person and more than 200,000 online. In November, Kigali will also play home to the World Travel and Tourism Council Global Summit.
Separate data from Rwanda's National Bank, which oversees the banking industry, reveal that the economy as a whole improved in the three months leading up to March 2023.
In the first quarter, year over year, the Composite Index of Economic Activities (CIEA), which is used to forecast the direction of economic movements in the coming months, climbed by 14.4%.
“The good economic performance in 2023 Q1 was mainly driven by the continuous robust recovery of the tourism industry as well as the improvement of trade (+10.7 percent) and telecommunication (+25.9 percent) services. Tourism-related services like hotels and restaurants as well as transport saw a continuous increase of their turnovers, recording 54.6 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively,” the central bank said in its May economic update.
Even while the most recent data shows a robust economic rebound, there are still unresolved shocks that might hinder the economy's performance this year. In 2023, the GDP is projected to grow by 6.2%, down from 8.2% in 2022.
The outlook is highly uncertain, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), primarily due to the risks of further geopolitical fragmentation, fluctuating energy, and fertilizer prices globally, a steeper decline in trading partner growth than anticipated, and a funding crunch.
“The costs of humanitarian response and reconstruction following the recent floods will generate further spending needs,” the IMF noted in a statement last month.
Uzziel Ndagijimana, Rwanda’s finance minister, noted last week during the budget presentation that drought or a drop in global commodity prices that would impact the nation's export pricing might jeopardize economic prospects.