- - the destruction wrought by the hurricane and the reconstruction efforts - - will be two of the key factors shaping economic activity in coming months. a frustrating aspect of the situation is that even now, some six weeks after the first of the hurricanes made landfall, the incoming data are only beginning to shed some light on the economic ramifications of the storms. clearly, however, the destructive power of these hurricanes reduced economic activity by forcing the evacuation of millions of people from their places of work, destroying factories and offices, shuttering businesses, and closing schools and government offices. the overall magnitude of many of these effects will be difficult for economic statisticians to measure. in the industrial sector, however, a number of real - time indicators are available, and they show the effect in that sector to have been significant. the federal reserve estimates that hurricane katrina reduced industrial production by 0. 3 percent in august, even though it struck near the end of the month. oil and gas production and refining were particularly hard hit. hurricane rita further damaged the gulf coast infrastructure and set back the pace of recovery. in normal times, the gulf produces 1 - 1 / 2 million barrels of crude oil per day - - about 30 percent of the national total - - and 10 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day - - about 20 percent of the national total. after hurricane rita struck, 100 percent of the oil production in the gulf region was shut in for a time, as was 80 percent of the natural gas production. petroleum refining, chemical plants, and electricity distribution were also relatively hard hit by the hurricanes. all told, industrial production was held down significantly in september as a result of lower output in these sectors. that said, various daily and weekly data sources indicate that the industrial sector is beginning to recover in october as oil and gas production come back on line and repairs to factories and distribution advance. the resilience and resourcefulness of the u. s. economy is illustrated by the reactions of firms and industries to the disruptions. for example, the reduction in refining capacity in the gulf has been partly replaced by higher operating rates in other areas, shifts in the composition of refined products, and an increased reliance on imports. as a result, stock - outs and supply disruptions in the energy sector have not been widespread, at least thus far. industry sources suggest that much of the repair and recovery effort will likely be undertaken over the course of the next several months, and as that occurs, production rates should

emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile : laying the foundation for industrialisation to prosper opening remarks by mr emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile, governor of the bank of uganda, at the african export - import bank ( afreximbank ) workshop “ afreximbank : the trade finance bank for africa ”, kampala, 17 november 2014. * * * the minister of finance, planning and economic development, the executive vice president afreximbank and your delegation, deputy governor of the bank of uganda members of the board of directors, bank of uganda senior management and staff bank of uganda distinguished invited guests ladies and gentlemen, good morning, it is a pleasure to speak at this african export - import bank ( afreximbank ) road show. i would like to thank the organisers, executive vice - president ( business development and corporate banking ) – dr. benedict oramah ’ s team from afreximbank and the bank of uganda communications department task force for arranging this programme. i am delighted to have this opportunity to talk about the issues surrounding the medium and long - term financing facilities of afreximbank at a time when the country is laying foundations for her take - off through industrialization as enshrined in policy documents like vision 2040. i would like to emphasize from the outset that the essence of my remarks is to enable practitioners extend the cache of financing options available for expanding their businesses. in low income countries, the banking sector is relatively not well developed such that supply side constraints are still a big challenge to accessing financial services. on account of a relatively weak financial sector ; access to financial services like credit is very low. by and large, the financial services sector in uganda has limited diversity dominated by commercial banks while other financial institutions are limited in number, small in size, and relatively ineffective. 1 the shallow financial sector has resulted into a small proportion of the population borrowing from commercial banks ( 18. 37 borrowers per 1000 adults ). 2 nonetheless, the demand side of the market has its inherent characteristics that serve as a hindrance to accessing the available credit markets. the small medium enterprises ( smes ) that dominate the business sector in developing countries are encumbered by ( i ) inadequate management systems ; ( ii ) poor financial records and accounting systems ; ( iii ) insufficient networks that limit their access to markets ; and ( iv ) operating inefficiencies that negatively impact production costs