Construction of Maseru city gross domestic product : Final report

Abstract

The importance of cities globally and in Africa cannot be over-emphasised. In recent times, it has become increasingly important to obtain urban GDP estimates which are compiled regularly. Globally, various institutions and researchers have attempted to measure city GDP. This exercise to measure city GDP in Africa has been initiated by United Nations Economic Commission for Africa to prepare a regional report on city GDP measurement based on the experiences of selected African cities. The city of Maseru is among the cities in Africa for which the pilot programme is being undertaken. The City’s share of Lesotho’s population was about 17 percent in 2019, while its share of GDP was about 50 percent of the national GDP estimates, suggesting a huge discrepancy in GDP per capita between Maseru and the rest of the country. Overall, Lesotho’s economic performance has been declining in the past five years, where GDP has been shrinking from 2016 to 2020, which is also the case with Maseru GDP. However, there was a slight increase in 2017 and 2018 but again a large contraction in 2020 due to COVID-19 related restrictions and low external demand. At an aggregate level, the GDP estimates are grouped into primary, secondary and tertiary sectors as is with the national estimates. The tertiary sector, which is mainly services, is the main contributor to both Maseru and national GDP, while the primary sector, consisting of agriculture, mining, and quarrying, is the least contributor, particularly in Maseru’s share of GDP. The second part of the report presents detailed descriptions of the results and methodology in 21 sub-sections for the 20 industries.