Uganda embarked on liberalisation and pro-market policies since 1980s. The adoption of the policies has enabled Uganda to establish a strong record of prudent macroeconomic management and structural reform. The government has maintained a stable macroeconomic environment and has undertaken reforms which have enabled the private sector to play a key role in the economic development of the country.
The GDP growth has average over 6.5 % since the 1990s putting Uganda‘s GDP growth rate above the Sub-Saharan Africa average. The GDP growth was below historical trend since FY2009/10 because of the global economic crisis, bad weather, subdued export performance and surges in international commodity prices. The real GDP growth per capita has however averaged around 4% over the same period because of the rapid increase in the population.
Government’s efforts in controlling the high inflation and tightening of monetary policy have started to show results in restoring the country’s macroeconomic stability. The GDP growth was 4.3 percent for FY2011/12 and is projected at about 5 percent for FY12/13. These levels are quite low when compared to GDP growth of 6.7 percent in FY 2010/11.
Uganda has made a lot of prgress towards achieving its Millennium Development Goals. There has been substantial poverty reduction over the last ten years, the proportion of people living in poverty was 24.5 percent in 2009/10 which surpassed the 2015 Millennium Development Goal of halving the 56 percent poverty rate recorded in 1992/93 and Uganda has achieved significant progress in the areas of population suffering from hunger, universal primary education, gender parity, and combating HIV/AIDS.
There has been slow progress towards achieving MDGs in the areas of completion of primary education, child and maternal mortality, access to reproductive health, incidence of malaria and other diseases.
Uganda’s per capita income of US$490 by FY2009/10 puts Uganda among the least developed countries of the world. Uganda’s planned to be among middle income status countries in one generation.
Uganda is now in the process of addressing the concerns about uneven development in the various parts of Uganda. The government focus is on developing the most remote and inaccessible areas of Uganda through building the necessary infrastructure to support economic growth in those areas.
Inflation
The country’s headline inflation started soaring in the middle of 2011 touching 30.4% in October 2011 prompting tight monetary policy by the Bank of Uganda to curb the situation. Bank of Uganda increased the CBR to over 20% to curb the inflation. The Bank has been gradually reducing the CBR in response to the reduction in inflation rate . The inflation rate has come down to 3.6% in May 2013 and the CBR stands at 11% in June 2013..