Welcome to the Uganda Bank which is the central bank of Uganda and handles monetary policy along with the printing of the Ugandan shilling.
In 2015, Uganda’s economy generated export income from the following merchandise: coffee (US $402.63 million), oil re-exports (US $131.25 million), base metals and products (US $120.00 million), fish (US $117.56 million), maize (US $90.97 million), cement (US $80.13 million), tobacco (US $73.13 million), tea (US $69.94 million), sugar (US $66.43 million), hides and skins (US $62.71 million), cocoa beans (US $55.67 million), beans (US $53.88 million), sim sim (US $52.20 million), flowers (US $51.44 million), and other products (US $766.77 million).
The country has been experiencing consistent economic growth. In fiscal year 2015–16, Uganda recorded gross domestic product growth of 4.6 percent in real terms and 11.6 percent in nominal terms. This compares to 5.0 percent real growth in fiscal year 2014–15.
The country has largely untapped reserves of both crude oil and natural gas. While agriculture accounted for 56 percent of the economy in 1986, with coffee as its main export, it has now been surpassed by the services sector, which accounted for 52 percent of GDP in 2007. In the 1950s, the British colonial regime encouraged some 500,000 subsistence farmers to join co-operatives. Since 1986, the government (with the support of foreign countries and international agencies) has acted to rehabilitate an economy devastated during the regime of Idi Amin and the subsequent civil war.
Graphical depiction of Uganda’s product exports in 28 color-coded categories.
Coffee fields in southwestern Uganda
In 2012, the World Bank still listed Uganda on the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries list.
Economic growth has not always led to poverty reduction. Despite an average annual growth of 2.5 percent between 2000 and 2003, poverty levels increased by 3.8 percent during that time. This has highlighted the importance of avoiding jobless growth and is part of the rising awareness in development circles of the need for equitable growth not just in Uganda, but across the developing world.
With the Uganda securities exchanges established in 1996, several equities have been listed. The government has used the stock market as an avenue for privatization. All government treasury issues are listed on the securities exchange. The Capital Markets Authority has licensed 18 brokers, asset managers, and investment advisors including: African Alliance Investment Bank, Baroda Capital Markets Uganda Limited, Crane Financial Services Uganda Limited, Crested Stocks and Securities Limited, Dyer & Blair Investment Bank, Equity Stock Brokers Uganda Limited, Renaissance Capital Investment Bank and UAP Financial Services Limited. As one of the ways of increasing formal domestic savings, pension sector reform is the centre of attention (2007).
Uganda traditionally depends on Kenya for access to the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa. Efforts have intensified to establish a second access route to the sea via the lakeside ports of Bukasa in Uganda and Musoma in Tanzania, connected by railway to Arusha in the Tanzanian interior and to the port of Tanga on the Indian Ocean.
Uganda is a member of the East African Community and a potential member of the planned East African Federation.
Uganda has a large diaspora, residing mainly in the United States and the United Kingdom. This diaspora has contributed enormously to Uganda’s economic growth through remittances and other investments (especially property). According to the World Bank, Uganda received in 2016 an estimated US $1.099 billion in remittances from abroad, second only to Kenya (US $1.574 billion) in the East African Community. Uganda also serves as an economic hub for a number of neighbouring countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Rwanda.
The Ugandan Bureau of Statistics announced inflation was 4.6 percent in November 2016.
