KIGALI: Rwanda aims to lift economic growth to an average 11.5 percent a year during 2013 through 2017, the government said on Thursday, shrugging off suggestions growth would be constrained by curbs on aid payments.
A top official previously said growth would slow to 7.1 percent in 2013 after donors cut or delayed aid over a row with Kigali. But the government's latest projection suggests it hopes its economy will prosper despite the aid shock.
"We have an objective that is to promote the economic development of this country, for us to achieve the economic growth rate of 11.5 percent," President Paul Kagame told government officials at a retreat to discuss policy.
"The reason we are talking about 11.5 percent is because it's possible for us," Kagame said. "We want to achieve it, based on who we are and what we would achieve."
He did not give a timeframe, but an official who was at the retreat, which journalists also attended, told Reuters the government aimed to reach 11.5 percent as an average rate during 2013 through 2017.
Like other sub-Saharan countries, the landlocked central African nation has recorded robust economic growth in recent years on the back of expansion in sectors ranging from farming, mineral exports and construction to services.
However, donors froze or delayed aid worth $240 million in the second half of 2012, equivalent to about 11 percent of the budget, the government said in December.
The aid freeze was a response to Rwanda's alleged support for rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rwanda has repeatedly rejected the allegations
Government figures showed Rwanda's economy grew 8 percent in 2012 after expanding 8.2 percent in 2011, outperforming several nearby east African nations. The International Monetary Fund said the economy grew an estimated 7.7 percent in 2012.
Claver Gatete, speaking last month when he was still central bank governor and before becoming finance minister, said growth would slow to 7.1 percent in 2013.
The aid freeze has complicated Rwanda's plans for a sovereign bond aimed at raising $350 million.
A debt issue was planned for late last year, but this was put off due to the negative publicity over the aid suspension. Government officials have said they would still issue the bond but have not said when.
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