By HOMELAND MEDIA TEAM
The Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, has revealed that in October 2023, Uganda earned Shs2.5Trn from its exports to its trading partners.
“During October 2023, Uganda exported merchandise worth USD 688.69 million (Shs2.595Trn) in October 2023. This represented an increase of 8.96% in comparison to USD 632.06 million (Shs2.381Trn) (exported in September 2023. This increase was majorly attributed to higher export earnings from gold, tobacco, maize, simsim, tea, fish and its products, hides and skins, electricity, oil re-exports and others,” noted the Ministry of Finance.
The details are contained in the Performance of Economy Report for November 2023, with the Ministry of Finance also reporting a decline in coffee exports, highlighting that the crop brought in US$78.96 million, a 16.34% decrease from US$94.39 million registered in September 2023, a decrease that was attributed to the lower yields that were characterized by drought in most regions across the country.
On the destination for Uganda’s exports, the report noted that the East African Community remained the top destination of Uganda’s exports, accounting for 41% of our total exports with Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan taking up 27.2%, 21.9% and 19.7% of the total exports to the region respectively.
The regional market was followed by the Middle East and Asia, which emerged as the second and third largest destinations for Uganda’s exports, accounting for 26.8% and 16.4% respectively.
However, the earning from exports were almost dwarfed by earnings from imports, which although registered a decrease by 5.0% from US$925.58 million (Shs3.485Bn) in September 2023 to US$879.27 million (Shs3.311Trn) in October 2023.
“This decrease was largely attributed to lower private sector imports, particularly petroleum products, machinery equipments, vehicles & accessories, base metals and their products, mineral products, textile and textile products and miscellaneous manufactured articles,” read in part the report.
In October 2023, Asia remained Uganda’s largest source of imports, accounting for 40.7% of total imports and within Asia; China and India remained the major contributors, accounting for 72.8% of the imports from the region.
Other notable regions included the rest of Africa, EAC, the Middle East, which accounted for 26.1%, 25.6% and 14.4% of the total imports respectively. Within the EAC region, Tanzania and Kenya emerged as the lead sources of Uganda’s merchandise imports, accounting for 65.5% and 30.4% respectively.
The report also highlighted that the stock of outstanding private sector credit reduced by 0.4% from Shs21.167,443Trn in September 2023 to Shs21,091,719Trn in October 2023, a growth that was attributed to the increase in loan repayments as new credit approved increased over the same period.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the value of loans approved by financial increased from Shs1.094Trn in September to Shs1.384.5billion in October 2023 following the sustained improvement in economic activity. The rate of loan approval also improved from 53.5% in September 2023 to 63.3% in October 2023.
As was the case in September 2023, personal loans and household loans continued to dominate the largest share of credit approved in October 2023 at 21.6% of total, followed by trade at 20%, building, construction and real estate at 20.0% and manufacturing at 18.6%. The share approved towards the manufacturing sector which is a key driver of growth, significantly increased from 7.3% in September to 18.6% in October 2023.
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