Migration in Burundi: History, Current Trends and Future - MGSoG ...

President Pierre Buyoya also led to increased food prices, a development that highly
affected nutritional states of rural households (Bundervoet & Verwimp, 2005). 2
Nkurunziza and Ngaruko (2002) call Burundi’s economic performance in the
period of 1960 to 2000 “catastrophic” (p. 1), and point mainly to political causes or the
side effects of bad governance. Basdevant (2009) summarizes the causes of low
Burundian growth rates as: “Lack of investment, civil conflict, economic inefficiencies,
state intervention in the economy, and regulatory restrictions [… ] (p. 1)”. Table 2 gives
an overview of some economic indicators for the period 1980 to 1999 in Burundi. The
reduction of international aid, which was already mentioned, is clearly shown in this table:
one can see that international aid fell from US $46 per capita in 1999 to US $11 in 1999.
Military expenditures rose substantially at the expense of health care and education, and
GDP per capita declined in that period (Ngaruku & Nkurunziza, 2005).
Table 2: Economic Indicators During the Period of Conflict
Average for the
1980s
1991 1993 1995 1997 1999
Aid per capita (US dollars) 33 46 37 47 9 11
Military expenditures (percent of
government expenditures)
7.2 8.7 7.8 12.5 20.6 -
Government expenditures (percent
of GDP)
- 28.7 31.2 30.6 24 -
GDP per capita (US dollars) 194 211 191 163 143 110
Tax revenue (percent of GDP) - 16.3 15.7 17.9 12.7 -
Taxes on international trade (percent
of total revenue)
30.5 23.7 21.1 28.9 19.2 -
Source: Ngaruku & Nkurunziza (2005).
Even though the country has recently shown positive economic developments, partly as
a result of the 2000 economic reform program and debt relief in the mid-2000s, growth
rates are too low for the country to bounce back to its pre-war economic level.
According to the World Bank (2009a), GDP growth rates must be at eight percent in the
coming years to regain the gross national income level of 1992. Instead, in the years
2001-2008, average GDP growth remained around three percent in Burundi.
Since economic development can play a large role in preventing future conflict, a
sound economic system is a necessity in a poor and conflict-torn country such as
Burundi (Baghdadli, Harborne & Rajadel, 2008). To stimulate growth Basdevant (2009)
pleads for creating a market-friendly economy and good business climate in combination
2 As a response to the coup of the President, the United States of America also cancelled their
humanitarian aid to Burundi. Eventually, the regional embargo on Burundi was suspended in 1999.
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