Manufacturing dwarfs mining as fastest growing industrial sector

Historical data released by Statistics Botswana this week indicates that between 2001 and 2011, the average rate of growth in manufacturing eclipsed mining's 1.48 percent and the government-supported water and electricity sector's 5.2 percent. For Statistics Botswana, the industrial sector is composed of manufacturing, mining/quarrying and water/electricity.

According to the data, real growth rates in manufacturing in the decade up to 2011 peaked at 17.5 percent in 2007 and 12.1 percent last year, while contracting most significantly in 2009 by 4.8 percent.