Rwanda’s economic growth is projected to remain at 5 percent in 2009/2010, a senior official at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said.

Dmitry Gershenson, the Resident IMF Representative told Business Times in an interview that, "Despite these changes (in the world economic outlook), the story itself remains essentially the same,”.

According to an update in the IMF’s World Economic Outlook (WEO) economic growth during 2009–10 is now projected to be about 0.5 percentage points higher than projected in the April 2009 and will reach 2.5 percent in 2010.

Gershenson also mentioned that for sub-Saharan Africa, growth in 2009 has been revised downward from 1.7 to 1.5 percent while growth in 2010 has been revised upward from 3.8 to 4.1 percent.

"On the global level, we will see sharp global contraction in 2009 with recovery beginning in 2010. Sub-Saharan Africa is affected, but not as severely as many other regions,” Gershenson said.

Growth projections for emerging Africa and the Middle East have been revised downward by 0.3 and 0.5 percentage points in 2009, respectively, while those for 2010 are broadly unchanged.

According to the report both regions have been more negatively affected by the drop in global trade than previously expected, with Middle Eastern oil exporters using their financial reserves to prop up domestic demand.

The institution’s July Global Financial Stability Report also indicates that financial conditions have improved more than expected, owing mainly to public intervention, and the rate of decline in economic activity is moderating, although to varying degrees among regions.

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