Zanzibar’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 2.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2021, the Zanzibar Office of Chief Government Statistician (OCGS) has reported.
The quarterly economic highlight report said the growth was buoyed by public administration, manufacturing, finance and insurance industries, adding, the slight growth in the tourism industry has influenced the growth of other activities like electricity distribution and transport services.
According to the report, GDP stood at Sh1.2 trillion during the period from January to March 2021, up by 17.9 percent compared to the corresponding quarter of 2020.
This is the first time the economy has recorded a positive growth rate since the first quarter of last year when the first coronavirus case was reported in the islands.
The economy slumped to 1.8 percent in the first quarter of 2020 slower than the 5.3 percent registered in the corresponding quarter in 2019.
This outturn was attributed to a slowdown in major economic activities; particularly tourism, after the government closed the borders because of the coronavirus outbreak.
GDP is the total monetary value of goods and services produced within an economy over a specific period.
The statistics body said that the peak growth observed in information and communication (51.2%) changes in value-added with 1.4% share.
It was followed by construction with the increase of 48.9% in value-added with 10.6%-shares and crops with the increase of 27.7% in value-added with 8.2 percentage-shares.
Others are financial and insurance with the increase of 27.4 in value-added with 3.0% percentage-shares and public administration presented 17.5% increases in value-added with 5.1 percentage-shares.
The development comes after different economic recovery strategies were rolled out by the government to revive businesses worst hit by Covid-19.
