Uganda had lower gold exports in July
The Performance of the Economy Macroeconomic Policy Department Monthly Report for August 2023 published by the Ministry of Finance has revealed that Uganda’s exports dropped by over Shs300Bn.
According to the report in July 2023, Uganda exported merchandise worth US$ 569.78 million (Shs2.130Trn), thus representing a 12.42% decrease compared to US$650.57 million (Shs2.432Trn) exported during June 2023, with Government attributing the drop in exports on lower export earnings from gold, beans, cotton, tea, flowers and fish registered during the month.
The report detailed that coffee export receipts amounted to USD 104.99 million, a 15.93% increase from USD 90.56 million in June 2023. This growth was mainly attributed to two factors. There was 11.19% increase in the average price of coffee from USD 2.68 to USD 2.71 from June to July as well as a 14.54% increase in the number of bags exported from 564,152 to 645,832 (60kg bags).
On the destination of Uganda’s exports, the report indicated that in July 2023, the EAC remained the top destination of Uganda’s exports, accounting for 41.17% of the total market share and the nations that took in Uganda’s exports included; South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya, taking up 28.10%, 26.31%, and 24.97% of the total exports respectively.
Additionally, Asia and the European Union emerged as the second and third top destinations for Uganda’s exports, accounting for 22.01% and 15.28% respectively.
However, it wasn’t just the exports that dropped, but Uganda’s appetite for foreign goods also dropped with the monthly report indicating that the value of merchandise imports decreased by 5.57% from US$ 898.31 million (Shs3.358Trn) in June 2023 to US$848.3 million (Shs3.171Trn) in July 2023.
The Ministry of Finance attributed this decline to lower private sector imports, particularly in vegetable products, animal, beverages, and fats & oil, prepared foodstuff, beverages & tobacco, mineral products (excluding Petroleum products).
The report also added that Asia remained Uganda’s largest source of imports, accounting for 36.87% of the total imports in July 2023. Within Asia, China and India were the major contributors, accounting for 72.79% of the imports from the region.
Other notable regions included the EAC, the Rest of Africa and the Middle East, which accounted for 24.68%, 22.11%, and 18.90% of the total imports respectively. Within the EAC region, Tanzania and Kenya emerged as the lead sources of Uganda’s merchandise imports, accounting for 55.35% and 40.17% of the total imports from the region respectively.
The report also indicated that the value of loans approved in July amounted to Shs1.128Trn which is a slight reduction from Shs1.180Trn approved in June 2023 and the largest share of credit approved was towards the trade sector at 27.3% of total approvals, closely followed by Personal and Household loans at 26.5%. Other notable recipients of credit were Business, Community, Social and other Services at 15.6%, the Agricultural sector at 11.9% and Building, Construction and Real Estate at 11.2%.
