Rwanda Economic Update, February 2023
The Rwandan economy continued to achieve strong growth in 2022 in the face of weakening external demand and restrictive monetary policies required to control inflation. Rising food prices particularly affected the poor, who devote a large share of their spending to food and appear to have faced higher food inflation than richer households did. Growth is expected to decline somewhat in 2023 and then to recover closer to historical rates over the medium term. Tourism is a major source of Rwanda’s foreign exchange earnings and tends to generate a higher proportion of formal sector jobs than other sectors and could make a substantial contribution to growth. Within tourism, strengthening the provision of nature-based tourism, which accounts for eight percent of leisure and conference visitors in Rwanda would also help protect biodiversity and advance Rwanda’s efforts to adapt to climate change. Nature-based tourism faces significant challenges, including potential limits on expansion of revenues from one of the primary international attractions - gorilla trekking, degradation of the natural assets that underpin the sector, risks presented by infectious diseases, habitat change and overexploitation, and the impact of climate change on tourism demand. Key measures to promote nature-based tourism will need to include expanding the network of protected areas and improving management of the natural assets within and outside protected areas and diversifying the nature-based tourism’s offering while complementing efforts to diversify tourism activities. Efforts are required to enhance revenue sharing mechanisms to increase incentives for local communities to conserve natural assets and unlock new opportunities and community-led enterprises that generate revenue from tourism and sustainable management of natural resources, including forests. This is essential to address poverty, to mitigate poaching threats, other illegal activities, and reduce unsustainable exploitation of resources. It is also imperative to secure private sector participation in financing and operation of facilities by introducing innovative financing methods to secure the necessary investment, strengthening capacity and management of tourism facilities and services, and removing subsidies that contribute to environmental degradation.
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| Format: | Report biblioteca |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2023-02-27T14:56:00Z
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| Subjects: | ECONOMIC GROWTH, FOOD PRICES, NATURE-BASED TOURISM, BIODIVERSITY, CLIMATE CHANGE, PROTECTED AREAS, POACHING, PRIVATE SECTOR, |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099123502202319117/P1774570bcca36025096cd01bfac8d121ba https://worldbank7-prod.atmire.com/handle/10986/39470 |
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