Uganda in June exported more of her goods to the East African Community (EAC) than any other region in the world, the latest Performance of the Economy Monthly Report released for July, says.
The report released by the Ministry of Finance shows that exports to the EAC region grew by 51.8 percent from US$ 89.40 million in May 2016 to US$ 135.74 million in May 2017. Exports to Tanzania and Kenya registered the largest increases of 114.5 percent and 111.2 percent respectively.
“In the month of June 2017, the East African Community (EAC) remained the major destination for Uganda’s exports, followed by the European Union, Middle East and Comesa countries,” the report says.
However, the report shows that exports to Burundi and Rwanda declined in part, reflecting the security situation in Burundi and increased domestic production of some of our exports by Rwanda.
According to Bank of Uganda the EAC is Uganda’s fastest growing export market. 10 years ago it accounted for only 25% of our total exports.
In the 2016/17 fiscal year, Uganda exported $ 1.3 billion of goods to the EAC, which amounted to 41% of all our merchandise exports.
However, the report shows that the total value of merchandise exports declined by 9.0 percent, to US$282.18 million in June 2017 from US$ 310.23 million in May 2017. “The decline is mainly attributed to a reduction in the value of tobacco, cotton and gold exports which was partially offset by a 4.2 percent increase in the value of coffee exports,” the report reads in part.
On a monthly basis, imports of merchandise declined by 3.4 percent to US$ 416.31 million in June 2017 from US$ 430.81 million in May 2017, the reports says. The reports attributes the decline mainly to lower government project imports which fell by 55.9 percent in June 2017 following a 213.2 percent increment in May 2017.
On the other hand, government non-project imports and total private sector imports registered increments of 50.6 percent and 1 percent, respectively in June 2017.
On an annual basis, the value of merchandise imports increased by 8.4 percent in June 2017 compared to the value recorded in June 2016.
EAC and Middle East made contributions of 17 percent and 13 percent respectively, making them the second and third largest sources of imports After Asia.
Of the total imports from Asia, 85 percent were from China, India, Indonesia and Japan. In the Middle East, United Arab Emirates accounted for 73 percent of the total imports, followed by Saudi Arabia with 23 percent. Kenya and Tanzania accounted for 67 percent and 24 percent of the total imports from the EAC, respectively.
