Rwanda registered the fastest growth rate of 7.5 per cent in 2010, the State of East Africa 2012 report has revealed.The report states that East Africa’s economy grew at an average rate of 6 per cent in 2010,During the period, the East Africa region managed to attract significant investments both from Africa and beyond, where foreign direct investment (FID) grew to 1.7 billion US dollars by 2010.According to the report, Trade between the EAC states expanded to 4.1 billion US dollars in 2010 from 2.2 billion US dollars in 2005. However, the region’s trade with the rest of the world expanded faster, driven by its import-consuming economic growth performance.Between 2000 and 2010 the size of East Africa’s economy grew in real terms to 79 billion US dollars from 32 billion US dollars. Kenya’s share of the regional economy was the largest at 40 per cent, while Tanzania had 29 per cent in 2010.The value of the EAC’s total trade with the world was 37 billion US dollars, which was double compared to 17.5 billion US dollars achieved in 2005.The region’s trade with the world as a share of its economy expanded from 28 per cent in 2005 to 47 per cent in 2010. Kenya had a significant decrease in its growth rate in 2008 and 2009 (2 per cent and 3 per cent) due to the consequences of the post-election violence that occurred in December 2007 and spilled over to the first few months of 2008.However, as a share of East Africa’s total trade, intra-regional trade declined slightly from 13 per cent in 2005 to 11 per cent in 2010.
