Overview: Almost 50% of GDP comes from the agricultural sector; coffee and tea make up 80-90% of total exports. The amount of fertile land is limited, however, and deforestation and soil erosion have created problems. The industrial sector in Rwanda is small, contributing only 17% to GDP. Manufacturing focuses mainly on the processing of agricultural products. The Rwandan economy remains dependent on coffee/tea exports and foreign aid. Weak international prices since 1986 have caused the economy to contract and per capita GDP to decline. A structural adjustment program with the World Bank began in October 1990. Ethnic-based insurgency in 1990-93 devastated wide areas of the north and displaced hundreds of thousands of people. A peace accord in mid-1993 temporarily ended most of the fighting, but massive resumption of civil warfare in April 1994 in the capital city Kigali has been taking thousands of lives and severely damaging short-term economic prospects

National product: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $6.8 billion (1993 est.)

National product real growth rate: 1.3% (1992 est.)

National product per capita: $800 (1993 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 9.5% (1992 est.)

Unemployment rate: NA%

Budget:
revenues: $350 million
expenditures: $NA, including capital expenditures of $NA (1992 est.)

Exports: $66.6 million (f.o.b., 1992 est.)
commodities: coffee 63%, tea, cassiterite, wolframite, pyrethrum
partners: Germany, Belgium, Italy, Uganda, UK, France, US

Imports: $259.5 million (f.o.b., 1992 est.)
commodities: textiles, foodstuffs, machines and equipment, capital goods, steel, petroleum products, cement and construction material
partners: US, Belgium, Germany, Kenya, Japan

External debt: $845 million (1991 est.)

Industrial production: growth rate -2.2% (1991); accounts for 17% of GDP

Electricity:
capacity: 30,000 kW
production: 130 million kWh
consumption per capita: 15 kWh (1991)

Industries: mining of cassiterite (tin ore) and wolframite (tungsten ore), tin, cement, agricultural processing, small-scale beverage production, soap, furniture, shoes, plastic goods, textiles, cigarettes

Agriculture: accounts for almost 50% of GDP and about 90% of the labor force; cash crops - coffee, tea, pyrethrum (insecticide made from chrysanthemums); main food crops - bananas, beans, sorghum, potatoes; stock raising; self-sufficiency declining; country imports foodstuffs as farm production fails to keep up with a 2.8% annual growth in population

Economic aid:
recipient: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $128 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $2 billion; OPEC bilateral aid (1979-89), $45 million; Communist countries (1970-89), $58 million
note: in October 1990 Rwanda launched a Structural Adjustment Program with the IMF; since September 1991, the EC has given $46 million and the US $25 million in support of this program (1993)

Currency: 1 Rwandan franc (RF) = 100 centimes
Exchange rates: Rwandan francs (RF) per US$1 - 145.45 (December 1993), 133.35 (1992), 125.14 (1991), 82.60 (1990), 79.98 (1989)

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Rwanda on this page is re-published from the 1995 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Rwanda Economy 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Rwanda Economy 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.