Rwanda's economy continues to remain resilient, demonstrating strong performance and sustaining its aspiration and ambition to achieve its target of becoming an upper-middle income country by 2030 despite the significant shocks. These include the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, disruption in global supply chains, the Russia–Ukraine war, and ongoing instability in the Middle East. ALSO READ: What stood out in Rwanda’s latest health survey Over the first nine months of 2025, Rwanda’s economy grew by 8.7% with quarterly growth of 6.5% in the first quarter, 7.8% in the second quarter, and 11.8% in the third quarter of 2025. This performance reflects the underlying strength and adaptability of Rwanda’s economy, even in a highly uncertain global environment. The consistency of growth across quarters signals a broad-based recovery and sustained momentum. ALSO READ: Despite the gains in public health, we still have work to do This growth has been driven by the industry sector, particularly construction, mainly construction of major infrastructure projects in transport, electricity generation, urbanization, and access to water, as well as private construction. The service sector has also continued to expand, further supporting overall economic growth. ALSO READ: Driving change with quality statistics for everyone The National Bank of Rwanda has successfully been able to maintain the inflation within the target range (2-8 percent) over the past two years, following a period of high inflation in the years 2022 and 2023. The labour market has also shown significant improvement, with a consistent drop in unemployment from 19.4% in Q3 2020 to 13.4% in Q3 2025, driven by employment gains across sectors. Both the employment-to-population ratio and labour force participation rate have increased, reflecting a strong integration. Beyond the numbers, these gains are translating into tangible social progress, from poverty reduction to improvements in health and demographic indicators. Rwanda has reduced the poverty rate by 12.4 percentage points over a period of seven years, from 39.8% in 2017 to 27.4% in 2024. ALSO READ: Declining fertility rate not a concern now, but could be in future – expert The recently released seventh demographic and health survey highlights also the improvement in the well-being of the population, specifically in the health sector. Most health indicators have shown progress, including a decline in the total fertility rate from 4.1 children per woman in 2020 to 3.7 in 2025, driven by increased awareness and access to family planning services. Maternal healthcare, child health, and access to health services have improved, and stunting among children under five decreased from 33% in 2020 to 27% in 2025. However, the RDHS7 results clearly also remind us that some areas still require sustained and targeted efforts to meet national priorities and global development targets. As Rwanda moves forward, evidence-based policymaking anchored in high-quality statistics will remain essential to sustaining growth, reducing poverty, and improving the wellbeing of all citizens. The DHS provides a vital roadmap to guide these efforts and monitor progress toward our shared goals. The writer is the Director General of the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR).
