The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revealed that Rwanda’s economy will continue to grow in 2018-2019 to by 7.2%.

The IMF Mission in Rwanda Chief, Laure Redifer announced this in a press conference in Kigali.

She was speaking about Rwanda’s economic growth prospect after IMF staff completed discussions in the ninth review Policy Support Instrument supported program.

Redifer observed that Rwanda’s economy is rebounding as the economic growth in 2017 outpaced expectation by rising to 6.1%.

Inflation, she said has remained very low, 0.7 percent in February over the previous year, due to ample food supplies causing food prices to decline.

External imbalances have continued to decline, on the basis of exchange rate adjustment and other policies to improve competitiveness and diversify Rwanda’s production and exports.

Foreign exchange reserves are accumulating faster than anticipated and pressure on the Rwandan franc has abated.

“Looking forward, IMF team projects growth to return to between 7-8 percent in 2018-2019, and prices on the market will remain at 5%,” she said.

She said that the strong economic growth, tax revenues have increased more than expected and the supplementary resources will be used for additional public spending in priority areas, especially health, education and irrigation for agriculture.

The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Amb. Claver Gatete said that industries will develop by 8%, service sector by 8% and agriculture by 6%; and agriculture he said will continue to develop due to promising rains and investment that has been allocated there.

“Based on current information, we expect economic growth of 7.2% by this year and 7.8% next year,” he said.

Last year, agriculture production increased by 7%, industry by 4% and services by 8%.