The Bank of Uganda (BOU) has denied it compiled the gross domestic product (GDP) figures that have caused controversy in the local media, saying that that is the responsibility of the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos).
“The Governor in his monetary statement of April 2018 referred to a growth rate of 6.3 per cent in the calendar year 2017. The Deputy Governor referred to a GDP growth rate of 6.9 per cent in the second half of the current year 2017. Both of these figures are taken directly from the quarterly GDP data published by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) which are available on this website,” said Charity Mugumya, Director of Communications.
Ms Mugumya today wrote a letter in response to one of the newspapers that said Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile, his deputy Dr. Louis Kasekende and Chairman of the National Planning Authority (NPA) Dr. Wilberforce Kisamba Mugerwa had given contradicting GDP growth rates to the public as they discussed issues concerning the economy of Uganda at different for a this week.
The Chairman of NPA referred to a projected GDP growth rate of 5.5 per cent for the 2017/18 fiscal year, which has not ended. As such there’s nothing inconsistent in the different GDP figures given by these three gentlemen and certainly nothing warrants the allegation that they are lying.
Ms Mugumya said BOU only uses GDP growth rates as provided by Ubos, the managers of national statistics.
Mugerwa’s issue with the rate he quoted is that it cannot be relied on to deliver the country to the middle income status by the year 2020 while the BOU officials used to figures to show that the economy was rebounding, helped by the increased investments in agriculture and the services sector among others.
