International Trade

Why countries trade and what Rwanda buys and sells abroad; the theories of absolute and comparative advantage, worked with production tables and drawn production possibility frontiers; the terms of trade, calculated and interpreted; free trade versus protection, with tariff and quota diagrams showing who gains and who loses; and how Rwanda's commercial policy tries to grow and diversify its exports.

2

Balance of Payments

How a country records every transaction with the rest of the world: the balance of trade and the balance of payments, the current, capital and financial accounts, and why the whole account must balance; Rwanda's own accounts from 2021 to 2025, read and analysed; how deficits are financed and surpluses managed, and the policies that correct an imbalance, from devaluation to supply-side reform; and how changes in the terms of trade and other shocks move the balance of payments.

3

Foreign Exchange

What foreign exchange is, where Rwanda's comes from and what sets its price, with worked currency conversions using the BNR's rates; the gold standard and the gold exchange standard of Bretton Woods; fixed exchange rates and devaluation; floating rates and depreciation, drawn with the demand and supply of dollars; the managed float Rwanda has used since 1995 and the franc's movements against the dollar; and foreign-exchange liberalisation, reserves, shortages and exchange control.

4

Economic Integration and Globalization

What economic integration is and why countries pursue it; the stages from a preferential trade area and a free trade area to a customs union, a common market and an economic union, with Rwanda's own blocs (the EAC, COMESA and the AfCFTA); trade creation and trade diversion worked with numbers, and the gains, costs and limits of integration; globalisation, its causes and its effects; multinational corporations and foreign direct investment in Rwanda; and the IMF and World Bank, the Bretton Woods institutions.

5

Economic Growth, Underdevelopment and Economic Development

What economic growth is and how it is measured; what drives growth and how a government can promote it; its benefits and costs, and growth without development; the Harrod–Domar model and other theories of growth; the meaning, indicators and causes of underdevelopment, the vicious circle of poverty and poverty reduction; and economic development, its goals and indicators, including the Human Development Index and the Sustainable Development Goals, with Rwanda's own figures and plans.

6

Agricultural Development

What agricultural development means, its objectives and the features of farming in Rwanda and other developing countries; its advantages and disadvantages; the modernisation approach (mechanisation, intensive farming, research and extension, the Crop Intensification Programme and land use consolidation); the transformation approach (from subsistence to commercial farming, specialisation, diversification and cooperatives); and the ways to raise agricultural productivity for food security, jobs and sustainable growth, judged against Rwanda's PSTA 5 and the latest Seasonal Agricultural Survey.

7

Industrial Development

What industrial development is and how industry is classified; its advantages and disadvantages for a developing country, with Rwanda's own industrial structure; the choice between capital-intensive and labour-intensive techniques, intermediate and appropriate technology, and technology transfer and development; small-scale and large-scale industries, the challenges industry faces in developing countries and the policies that answer them, including Rwanda's special economic zones; and import substitution and export promotion, judged through the Made in Rwanda policy.

8

Development Strategies

What development strategies are and what they aim to achieve; the great strategy debates: balanced growth and the big push (Rosenstein-Rodan, Nurkse), unbalanced growth (Hirschman), Lewis's dual-sector model and Rostow's stages, each with its critique; and three strategies in depth: education, foreign aid (its forms, types, need, use, dependence and donor reluctance) and infrastructure, with Rwanda's own figures, plans and budget.

9

Economic Planning

What economic planning is and why developing countries plan; its objectives and principles; how plans are classified (indicative and imperative, by period, coverage and method) and what makes a good plan; the planning process, the conditions for success and the limits of planning in developing countries; and Rwanda's planning system, from Vision 2020 and the EDPRS to Vision 2050, NST2, sector and district plans and imihigo.

10

Structure of the Rwandan Economy

How Rwanda's output and jobs are divided between the primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary sectors, using NISR's latest national accounts and Labour Force Survey; the formal and informal, private and public sectors; privatisation in theory and in Rwanda; dualism; and Rwanda's economic dependence and main structural challenges, using NISR's trade statistics.

Units