A senior Ugandan official on Wednesday said the country's economy will grow at an average of 5.5 percent over the next 12 months.

Matia Kasaija, minister of finance, said while reading the country's National Budget for the next financial year 2016/17 that the growth will be premised on sound fiscal and monetary policies to ensure macro-economic stability.

He said the government will reduce its trade deficit by increasing the country's exports through value addition and attracting foreign direct investment.

Kasaija noted that over the last 12 months, the country's economic growth slowed down to 4.6 percent compared to the targeted 5 percent.

He said the slow growth was on account of the decline in the international commodity prices, especially oil, which, according to World Bank figures, fell 67 percent from June 2014 to December 2015.

Kasaija said the impact of lower commodity prices was compounded by domestic conditions such as high interest rates on credit facilities among others.

He said despite the country's registered slow economic growth, the figure was above the projected growth of 3 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa

source : xinhua