{UAH} UGANDA HAS THE 17TH FASTEST GROWING ECONOMY IN THE WORLD - ANDREW MWENDA
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UGANDA HAS THE 17TH FASTEST GROWING ECONOMY IN THE WORLD - ANDREW MWENDA
An Alex Bahati has made an attempt to respond to me with some sense. Let me reply to his concerns regarding growth in incomes in Uganda.
The international measure of economic success is the growth in GDP. Even with its weaknesses it remains the best measure. Over the last 30 years, Uganda's economy has grown at an average rate of 6.74%. Per capita income growth has been 3.5% over the same period. Few countries have ever achieved this feat. Indeed over the last 30 years, Uganda has had the 17th fastest growing economy in the world out of 189 countries on the IMF measurement list. In Africa Uganda is number four.
In fact if we remove mineral rich countries from the sample (because they are enjoying god's bounty) Uganda is number seven in the world and number one in Africa. Of course FDC radicals will say Museveni has bribed IMF.
I agree growth can concentrate income in the hands of a few. To understand income distribution we use the gini coefficient. Zero is perfect equality, one is perfect inequality. Uganda is 0.39. Out of 48 nations of sub Sahara Africa, Uganda's income distribution is the eighth best - better than the other 40 nations. Indeed, all Africa's leading democracies - South Africa (0.62), Ghana (0.42), Senegal (0.40), Zambia (0.57), Botswana (0.65), Kenya (0.42), Namibia (0.57) perform worse than Uganda. Only Benin (0.36) and Malawi (0.39) are the democracies in Africa that perform better than Uganda in equality of income distribution.
How are ordinary Ugandans doing in relation to economic growth? Are they benefiting? We have primary data from two sources; the National Household Survey of 2013 and the National Housing and Population Census of 2014. Both are done by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS). So they address the problem of primary sourcing Bahati raised.
According to the National Household Survey, using the mean consumption per capita, the number of Ugandans living in poverty has fallen from 56% in 1992 to 19% in 2013. It is one of the most successful poverty reduction stories of contemporary Africa.
Let us now come to results from the census: while 77.4% of Ugandans lived on rammed earth floor in 2002, only 32.4% did in 2014. Houses whose walls were built of permanent materials have increased from 12% in 1991 to 26.1% in 2002 to 43.7% in 2014. Roofs made of permanent materials were 40% in 1991, 56% in 2002 and 70% in 2014. This shows economic growth has been widely shared. Tomorrow we shall move away from these macro statistics and use anecdotal evidence to demonstrate this.
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-- An Alex Bahati has made an attempt to respond to me with some sense. Let me reply to his concerns regarding growth in incomes in Uganda.
The international measure of economic success is the growth in GDP. Even with its weaknesses it remains the best measure. Over the last 30 years, Uganda's economy has grown at an average rate of 6.74%. Per capita income growth has been 3.5% over the same period. Few countries have ever achieved this feat. Indeed over the last 30 years, Uganda has had the 17th fastest growing economy in the world out of 189 countries on the IMF measurement list. In Africa Uganda is number four.
In fact if we remove mineral rich countries from the sample (because they are enjoying god's bounty) Uganda is number seven in the world and number one in Africa. Of course FDC radicals will say Museveni has bribed IMF.
I agree growth can concentrate income in the hands of a few. To understand income distribution we use the gini coefficient. Zero is perfect equality, one is perfect inequality. Uganda is 0.39. Out of 48 nations of sub Sahara Africa, Uganda's income distribution is the eighth best - better than the other 40 nations. Indeed, all Africa's leading democracies - South Africa (0.62), Ghana (0.42), Senegal (0.40), Zambia (0.57), Botswana (0.65), Kenya (0.42), Namibia (0.57) perform worse than Uganda. Only Benin (0.36) and Malawi (0.39) are the democracies in Africa that perform better than Uganda in equality of income distribution.
How are ordinary Ugandans doing in relation to economic growth? Are they benefiting? We have primary data from two sources; the National Household Survey of 2013 and the National Housing and Population Census of 2014. Both are done by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS). So they address the problem of primary sourcing Bahati raised.
According to the National Household Survey, using the mean consumption per capita, the number of Ugandans living in poverty has fallen from 56% in 1992 to 19% in 2013. It is one of the most successful poverty reduction stories of contemporary Africa.
Let us now come to results from the census: while 77.4% of Ugandans lived on rammed earth floor in 2002, only 32.4% did in 2014. Houses whose walls were built of permanent materials have increased from 12% in 1991 to 26.1% in 2002 to 43.7% in 2014. Roofs made of permanent materials were 40% in 1991, 56% in 2002 and 70% in 2014. This shows economic growth has been widely shared. Tomorrow we shall move away from these macro statistics and use anecdotal evidence to demonstrate this.
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"When a man is stung by a bee, he doesn't set off to destroy all beehives"
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