The number of Rwandans living in poverty has fallen to 38.2% from 39.1% in 2013/14 according to the latest Integrated Household Living Condition Survey (EICV5) released today by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR).
The report shows that during the same period, extreme poverty declined slightly from 16.3% to 16% while inequality reduced as well with the Gini coefficient dropping from 0.447 in 2013/14 to 0.429 in 2016/17.
A statement released by NISR blame slowed poverty reduction to challenging times during the period the survey was conducted from October 2016 to October 2017. The drought of 2016 in season B led to low agricultural yields which resulted in shortages of food supply and high increase in food prices in 2017.
The low agricultural output also impacted negatively on the GDP growth which led to the economy underperforming during the fiscal year 2016-2017. The GDP growth at this time was at its minimum for the last ten years.
However, the report shows that living conditions for Rwandans have improved significantly with access to electricity from 22%-34%, metal roofs from 61% to 67%, Radio ownership from 60% to 74% among others.
The government sanctioned report presents and discusses key results from EICV5 in the areas of demographic characteristics, migration, health, education, characteristics of households & dwelling in the country, economic activity patterns, environmental issues and household’s access to credits and savings.
