The Monitor (Kampala)
Martin Luther Oketch
27 October 2009
Remittances from Ugandans abroad rose 37 percent to $748 million in the 2008/09 (July-June) year after slumping during the previous year due to the global economic slowdown, a parliamentary report said last week.
The highest percentage of remittances to Uganda come from Europe and North America and these are the two regions that have been severely affected by the global economic crisis.
Remittances have been one of the catalysts to Uganda's economic growth in the recent times. In the financial year 2007/08, total remittance/private flows into Uganda reached $1.4 billion, which translated into a 10 per cent of the total GDP growth.
"January to March, we received $127 million and April - June, we received $109 million. During the same period last year, we received $90.72 million and $123.68 million respectively," officials from Bank of Uganda said last week.
An official in the Research Department of Bank of Uganda said overall, there is an increase in the receipts compared to the same period last year.
The World Bank has projected that the international capital flows are predicted to fall in 2009 to $363 billion, a sharp drop from the $1.2 trillion in 2007 and $707 billion in 2008.
The global economic crisis has hit Sub-Saharan Africa hard, reducing economic growth to just 1 per cent in 2009 after a period of sustained high economic growth going by the International Monetary Fund Regional Economic Outlook for 2009.
For the case of Uganda, economic growth prospects remain at about 7 per cent for this year beyond what is being projected for the entire Sub-Saharan Africa of 5 per cent in 2010. This means that Uganda remains one of the strongest economies in the Sub-Saharan African region.
"The percentage shares of the different sources of the funds for 2008 are summarised in the table below. The shares for 2009 are not available although they should not differ significantly from those of 2008," said the central bank
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