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Africa > Uganda

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Cover Technical Assistance Reports
Uganda: Technical Assistance Report-The Cost of Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals in Human Capital and Infrastructure Development
International Monetary Fund. Fiscal Affairs Dept.
The mission estimates that making substantial progress in critical SDG sectors in Uganda would require additional annual spending of about 18.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030. Relative to low-income developing countries (LIDCs), additional spending in Uganda is higher in the social sectors and lower in the infrastructure sectors (Figure). Overall, Uganda’s additional spending is above the median LIDC and similar to the median Sub-Saharan African (SSA) country. (This analysis is an assessment of the spending to achieve a high performance in selected SDGs in Uganda and does not include an examination of options to finance the spending needs.) • Health—expanding the supply of medical staff. Total health care spending is low (4.2 percent of GDP) relative to peers, and there is substantial room to increase the efficiency of spending: health outcomes are below those of several other countries with similar spending. Overall, we estimate that total health care spending would have to gradually increase by an additional 7.4 percent of GDP in 2030 relative to today’s spending, to deliver superior health care outcomes. A major contributor to the additional cost is the need to substantially increase the supply of doctors—more than 16-fold—and to nearly triple the number of other health personnel. • Education—strengthening both quality and quantity of services. Uganda’s young population—60 percent are school-aged, a higher share than in the East African Community (EAC) and LIDC peers—combined with a relatively low enrollment rate, means that the country needs to invest in getting its children into schools. However, just as important is improving the currently low level of educational quality. Toward this goal, class sizes need to fall by hiring more teachers, thus bringing the student-teacher ratio down from 28 to 19. Public spending, currently well below LIDC and EAC averages, would need to triple as a share of GDP to help deliver on these goals. We estimate that Uganda’s total expenditures on education would need to increase by an additional 6.7 percent of GDP from its current level of 7.1 percent of GDP. • Water and sanitation—aiming at safely managed water and sanitation for all. Uganda is below regional and income-group peers in water and sanitation standards. In particular, while there has been progress in water provision, sanitation services have hardly improved in the past two decades, and its provision is lower than most countries in the subregion. Closing the water and sanitation gaps will require an additional annual spending of 1.1 percent of GDP, including maintenance costs to counteract depreciation. The bulk of the cost burden comes from safely managed water in rural areas, given the relatively high unit cost of such facilities and the large rural population unserved by this type of facility. • Electricity—investing in transmission and distribution networks to increase access. The vast majority of Uganda’s electricity is generated by renewable energy (hydropower). Overall electricity consumption per capita, at 83kilowatt-hour (kWh), strongly lags LIDCs and is below what would be expected given its level of GDP per capita. Transmission and distribution networks need to catch up with installed capacity, which, at 1,347 megawatts (MW), is far ahead of peak demand at 793 MW. We estimate that expanding current access, serving the future population through 2030, and increasing consumption in line with economic growth, will require annual investments reaching 0.4 percent of GDP in 2030. • Roads—gradually increasing rural access. Raising access to roads from its current level of 53 percent of the rural population to 75 percent by 2030 will require about 20.4 thousand additional kilometers of all-weather roads. While rural road access is higher than LIDCs, road quality lags subregional peers, thus the expansion of access will also need to include upgrading of roads in that are in poor condition. We estimate that this will require annual investments of 2.8 percent of GDP in 2030.
Keywords:
Uganda; Sustainable Development Goals; Social Spending; Infrastructure Spending.; EU-International Monetary Fund; IMF resident Representative; IMF team; FAD department; SDG index; Sustainable Development Goals (SDG); Global; Sub-Saharan Africa
Cover IMF Working Papers
Aggregate Shocks and the Formation of Preferences and Beliefs
Paola Giuliano
and
Antonio Spilimbergo
A growing body of work has shown that aggregate shocks affect the formation of preferences and beliefs. This article reviews evidence from sociology, social psychology, and economics to assess the relevance of aggregate shocks, whether the period in which they are experienced matters, and whether they alter preferences and beliefs permanently. We review the literature on recessions, inflation experiences, trade shocks, and aggregate non-economic shocks including migrations, wars, terrorist attacks, pandemics, and natural disasters. For each aggregate shock, we discuss the main empirical methodologies, their limitations, and their comparability across studies, outlining possible mechanisms whenever available. A few conclusions emerge consistently across the reviewed papers. First, aggregate shocks impact many preferences and beliefs, including political preferences, risk attitudes, and trust in institutions. Second, the effect of shocks experienced during young adulthood is stronger and longer lasting. Third, negative aggregate economic shocks generally move preferences and beliefs to the right of the political spectrum, while the effects of non-economic adverse shocks are more heterogeneous and depend on the context.
Keywords:
trade shock; inflation experience; effect of shock; economic shock; beliefs to the right; Economic recession; Natural disasters; Migration; Inflation; Global; Europe
Cover Policy Papers
Macroeconomic Developments and Prospects For Low-Income Countries—2024
International Monetary Fund
and
World Bank
The outlook for Low-Income Countries (LICs) is gradually improving, but they face persistent macroeconomic vulnerabilities, including liquidity challenges due to high debt service. There is significant heterogeneity among LICs: the poorest and most fragile countries have faced deep scarring from the pandemic, while those with diversified economies and Frontier Markets are faring better. Achieving inclusive growth and building resilience are essential for LICs to converge with more advanced economies and meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Building resilience will also be critical in the context of a more shock-prone world. This requires both decisive domestic actions, including expanding and better targeting Social Safety Nets (SSNs), and substantial external support, including adequate financing, policy advice, capacity development and, where needed, debt relief. The Fund is further stepping up its support through targeted policy advice, capacity building, and financing.
Keywords:
Low-Income Countries; Heterogeneity; Debt vulnerability; Resilience building; Inclusive growth towards SDGs; Financing needs and external support; Social Safety Nets; poverty rate; means testing; poverty gap; aggregate poverty gap; SSNS spending; prospects in low-income countries; poverty threshold exit poverty; reform scenario; transparency policy; FAD financing tool; financial support; Poverty reduction; Household consumption; Inflation; Global; Sub-Saharan Africa
Cover IMF Working Papers
Panel Nowcasting for Countries Whose Quarterly GDPs are Unavailable
Omer Faruk Akbal
,
Mr. Seung M Choi
,
Mr. Futoshi Narita
, and
Jiaxiong Yao
Quarterly GDP statistics facilitate timely economic assessment, but the availability of such data are limited for more than 60 developing economies, including about 20 countries in sub-Saharan Africa as well as more than two-thirds of fragile and conflict-affected states. To address this limited data availablity, this paper proposes a panel approach that utilizes a statistical relationship estimated from countries where data are available, to estimate quarterly GDP statistics for countries that do not publish such statistics by leveraging the indicators readily available for many countries. This framework demonstrates potential, especially when applied for similar country groups, and could provide valuable real-time insights into economic conditions supported by empirical evidence.
Keywords:
Developing economies; fragile and conflict-affected states; GDP; low-income countries; nowcasting; sub-Saharan Africa; GDP statistic; panel Nowcasting; data availability; growth data; annex II; data availablity; Commodity prices; Purchasing power parity; Data collection; Export fluctuations; Global
Cover Policy Papers
The Central Bank Transparency Code—Findings Of The Pilot Reviews
International Monetary Fund. Monetary and Capital Markets Department
This paper reports to the Executive Board on the outcomes of the Central Bank Transparency Code (CBT) pilot reviews. The pilot CBT reviews helped central banks evaluate their transparency practices and strengthen dialogue with external stakeholders. The CBT pilots provided valuable information on the resources required for the reviews going forward. Staff will continue to offer CBT reviews to the rest of the membership. The staff will report back to the Board in FY2026 on the progress of the CBT reviews and an update to the Code following five years of implementation.
Keywords:
CBT review; transparency practice; central bank Transparency Code; CBT Pilots; guidance note; Central bank transparency; Financial sector stability; Central bank autonomy; Financial Sector Assessment Program; Central bank accountability; Western Hemisphere; Global; Middle East and Central Asia
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Uganda: Central Bank Transparency Code Review
International Monetary Fund. Monetary and Capital Markets Department
This paper on Uganda discusses Central Bank Transparency Code Review. The Bank of Uganda (BOU) is implementing transparency practices that are broadly aligned with the good practices for central banks. The BOU continues to improve communication of its monetary policy framework in a transparent manner, but there is room to enhance transparency by disclosing policy deliberations. The BOU has improved macroprudential policies and the analytical framework aimed at mitigating systemic risks, but decisions leading to macroprudential actions are not explained. The anti-corruption legal framework in Uganda applies to the BOU, however no details are disclosed in the public domain as to how it is applied and enforced with respect to the BOU. The BOU should consider compiling and developing a policy on confidentiality that includes the reasons underlying the choices it has made on disclosure or nondisclosure. The mission found that BOU’s transparency practices largely conform to various dimensions of transparency as information is disseminated through several channels.
Keywords:
BOU website; BOU communications policy; transparency practice; BOU endeavor; BOU transparency; BOU department; Anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT); Financial sector stability; Revenue administration transparency and accountability; Macroprudential policy; International reserves; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Uganda: Technical Report - Public Investment Management Assessment
International Monetary Fund. Fiscal Affairs Dept.
Uganda has achieved significant improvements in public investment management over the last few years. The new IMF Public Investment Management Assessment (PIMA) report shows that Uganda is well ahead of its comparators in many aspects of public investment management, in particular in institutional design. A number of important measures have been undertaken, including giving the Development Committee a strong role as a gatekeeper for new investment proposals, the establishment of the Projects Analysis and Public Investment Department, and development of guidelines and manuals to improve the quality of project preparation and appraisal. Many reforms are fairly recent and are not fully institutionalized, so there is a clear need to continue and to further strengthen public investment management in Uganda. The IMF and other development partners are active partners to the government in pursuing these reforms.
Keywords:
IMF methodology; Project cost adjustment; efficiency frontier; investment portfolio; IMF recommendation; maintenance funding; management reform; civil war; Public investment spending; Budget planning and preparation; Infrastructure; Sub-Saharan Africa
Cover IMF Working Papers
Impact of COVID-19: Nowcasting and Big Data to Track Economic Activity in Sub-Saharan Africa
Brandon Buell
,
Reda Cherif
,
Carissa Chen
,
Jiawen Tang
, and
Nils Wendt
The COVID-19 pandemic underscores the critical need for detailed, timely information on its evolving economic impacts, particularly for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where data availability and lack of generalizable nowcasting methodologies limit efforts for coordinated policy responses. This paper presents a suite of high frequency and granular country-level indicator tools that can be used to nowcast GDP and track changes in economic activity for countries in SSA. We make two main contributions: (1) demonstration of the predictive power of alternative data variables such as Google search trends and mobile payments, and (2) implementation of two types of modelling methodologies, machine learning and parametric factor models, that have flexibility to incorporate mixed-frequency data variables. We present nowcast results for 2019Q4 and 2020Q1 GDP for Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Ghana, and argue that our factor model methodology can be generalized to nowcast and forecast GDP for other SSA countries with limited data availability and shorter timeframes.
Keywords:
model prediction; quantile plot; ML model; GDP YoY; data variable; YoY percent change; Factor models; Machine learning; Time series analysis; Spot exchange rates; Mobile banking; Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa
Cover Departmental Papers
Macroeconomic Research in Low-income Countries: Advances Made in Five Key Areas Through a DFID-IMF Collaboration
Hites Ahir
,
Hendre Garbers
,
Mattia Coppo
,
Mr. Giovanni Melina
,
Mr. Futoshi Narita
,
Ms. Filiz D Unsal
,
Vivian Malta
,
Xin Tang
,
Daniel Gurara
,
Luis-Felipe Zanna
,
Linda G. Venable
,
Mr. Kangni R Kpodar
, and
Mr. Chris Papageorgiou
Despite strong economic growth since 2000, many low-income countries (LICs) still face numerous macroeconomic challenges, even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the deceleration in real GDP growth during the 2008 global financial crisis, LICs on average saw 4.5 percent of real GDP growth during 2000 to 2014, making progress in economic convergence toward higher-income countries. However, the commodity price collapse in 2014–15 hit many commodity-exporting LICs and highlighted their vulnerabilities due to the limited extent of economic diversification. Furthermore, LICs are currently facing a crisis like no other—COVID-19, which requires careful policymaking to save lives and livelihoods in LICs, informed by policy debate and thoughtful research tailored to the COVID-19 situation. There are also other challenges beyond COVID-19, such as climate change, high levels of public debt burdens, and persistent structural issues.
Keywords:
Low-income-countries; Investments; Monetary policy; DPPP; DP; transmission mechanism; exchange rate; IMF economist; interest rate; LIC economy; rate of return; credit entry; IMF country team; IMF gender portal; monetary policy formulation; DFID-IMF monetary policy agenda; LICS face; Public investment spending; Income inequality; Gender inequality; Income; Global; Sub-Saharan Africa
Cover IMF Working Papers
Public Expenditure and Inclusive Growth - A Survey
Mr. Younes Zouhar
,
Jon Jellema
,
Nora Lustig
, and
Mohamed Trabelsi
This paper explores the role of public expenditure in fostering inclusive growth. It starts with a presentation of salient features of public expenditure. Then, it lays out an analytical framework that describes the channels through which public expenditure affects inequality and poverty in the short and long term. Based on a review of the empirical literature, it discusses the policy options. Finally, the paper assesses the role of key factors such as the initial conditions, and the institutions, in shaping the inclusive spending policies.
Keywords:
public expenditure; social spending; inclusive growth; inequality; poverty; mean inequality impact effectiveness; poverty rate; spending policy; policy option; Income inequality; Income; Global; Africa