Kenya’s economy expands by 5.9 percent  in Q1 2016

Kenya’s economy has expanded by 5.9 percent in the first quarter of 2016 compared to 5.0 percent in the same period 2015 first quarter due to positive growth from the tourism sector.

The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) in a statement on Thursday said,

“The economy is estimated to have maintained the growth momentum that started during the second quarter of 2015.”

“The most notable improvement was a rebound in activities of accommodation and food services which expanded by 12.1 percent in the period under review compared to a contraction of 11.4 per cent during the same quarter in 2015.”

However, there was a slight growth in agriculture, forestry and fishing which grew by 4.8 percent in the quarter compared with 2.9 percent registered in first quarter 2015.

The construction industry grew by 9.9 percent from 12.6 percent in the same period of 2015, while manufacturing grew by 3.6 percent from 4.1 percent in first quarter 2015.

The ICT sector grew by 9.7 percent from 8.6 percent previously.

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Subsequently, the inflation rate for June increased by 1.05 per cent from 167.99 in May 2016 to 169.76 in June 2016.

“Between May and June 2016, Food and Non-Alcoholic Drinks’ Index increased by 2.06 per cent. As indicated in Table 3, this resulted from increases in the prices of many food items which outweighed the decreases.

Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’ Index, increased by 0.08 per cent in June 2016 compared to the previous month. This was mainly attributed to price increases in respect of kerosene and house rents which outweighed notable fall in the price of cooking gas. The cost of electricity however, remained at the same level as in the previous five months of January to May 2016.

Over the same review period, the Transport Index increased by 0.34 per cent mainly on account of higher cost of petrol and diesel.”

In 2015,same period inflation in June rose to 7.08% from 6.87% in May.