Institute of Economic Affairs chief executive officer Kwame Owino [ photo / The star. ]
Kenya recorded the list economic activities in the last five years to 2017 as the Gross Domestic Product recorded a 4.9 per cent dip that was 0.6 points short of the World Banks 5.5 per cent growth forecast.
In the latest banks quarterly report released yesterday during the 16th edition of the Kenya Economic Update, banks attributed the drop to servere drought that hit the country in the first half of the year thus affecting agricultural output , a slow credit grow arising from the last year's interest capping rate law and a prolonged electioneering period.
In the financial sector, the growth rate recorded the lowest pace of 4.8 per cent in six years, signifying the tough environment facing banks, down from 7.7 per cent between 2010 and 2016. On the transport and storage, and ICT sub-sectors , recorded a positive growth of 9.9 per cent and 10.4 per cent respectively on each year by year.
The manufacturing sector recorded a minute 2.6 per cent year on year growth as even the World Bank described the growth as too low and weak to create employments yearly despite increasing in its labour market.
Central Bank Governor Patrick Njoroge however noted that the Africa’s largest economy is set to rebound to a growth rate of 5.5 per cent next year before accelerating to 5.9 per cent in 2019.
“Compared to the global growth of 6.3 per cent and the regional growth of 2.6 per cent, our performance is pretty good and needs to be appreciated in the wake of economic shocks that frustrated much better results,” said Central Bank Governor Patrick Njoroge.