ECONOMIC SURVEY 2011
All the Main sectors of the economy recorded positive growths of significantly varying magnitudes.
Kenya’s economy expanded at a rate of 5.6% in 2010 versus 2.6% in 2009.Optimal rains kept a lid of food prices through 2010.Interest rates were brought lower and this created a positive feedback loop which rippled through the economy.
Agriculture: Is the mainstay of Kenya's economy, contributing over one third of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Agricultural crops include tea, coffee, horticultural products, pyrethrum, pineapples. The sector expanded impressively to record a real growth of 6.3 per cent in 2010 compared to contractions of 4.1 and 2.6 per cent experienced in 2008 and 2009 respectively
The turnaround was primarily due to: Favourable weather conditions that prevailed in 2010, government intervention through supply of subsidized seeds and fertilizers and improved prices for some key agricultural exports such as tea and coffee.
Among the agricultural commodities whose production improved significantly were maize, wheat, rice, tea, sisal and pyrethrum.
Favourable weather resulted in increased production of livestock (and livestock products) leading to a rise in volume of milk deliveries by 26.9 per cent from 406.5 million litres in 2009 to 515.7 million litres in 2010 while lowering consumer prices of livestock products.
Manufacturing: The manufacturing sector grew by 4.4 per cent in 2010 compared to a marginal growth of 1.3 per cent in 2009.
The recovery in the global economy positively impacted on the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) programmes recording an increase of KSh 5.5 billion in turnover to KSh 31.7 billion in 2010. Investments in the EPZ attracted an additional KSh 1.3 billion in 2010.
Money, Banking and Finance: Overall domestic credit grew by 30.4 per cent from KSh 978.3 billion in 2009 to KSh 1.3 trillion in December 2010. This growth was well above the targeted growth of 19.9 per cent. Contributing to this growth were: 21.2 per cent increase in credit to private sector including quasi government bodies and 62.3 per cent increase in domestic credit to Central Government
Stock Market: The Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) 20 share index too, rose steadily over the first three quarters of 2010 to reach a peak of 4,630 points during the third quarter.
While, the index edged downwards slightly in the fourth quarter but remained relatively high at 4,433 points at the end of December 2010 compared to 3,247 points in December 2009.
Tourism: In this sector earnings, which are a key source of foreign exchange earnings, rose by 17.9 per cent to KSh 73.7 billion in 2010 from KSh 62.5 billion in 2009 and a volume of international arrivals grew by 8.0 per cent from 1.49 million visitors in 2009 to 1.61 million in 2010.
Building and Construction: The sector recorded a slowed growth of 4.5 per cent in 2010 compared to growth of 12.4 per cent in 2009.However, loans and advances from commercial banks to the construction sector grew by 7.3 per cent from KSh 30.4 billion in 2009 to KSh 32.6 billion in 2010.
Of note is that, cement consumption went up by 16.2 per cent to 3.1million tonnes in 2010 compared to 2.7 million tones in 2009.
Energy: In Electricity, Installed capacity expanded by 7.7 per cent to 1,412.2 MW in 2010 from 1,311.5 MW in 2009. Consequently total electricity generation increased by 7.2 per cent to 6,975.8 million KWh in 2010 compared to 6,507.2 million KWh in 2009.
Transport and Communication: The transport sub-sector recorded a growth of 5.9 per cent in 2010 compared to 6.4 per cent in 2009. Growth in the activities of the post; while telecommunication slowed to 4.4 per cent in 2010 compared to a rapid expansion of 10.0 per cent in 2009. More specifically, the mobile subscriber base reached 20.1 million in 2010 from 17.4 million in 2009.
Imports and Exports: The value of total exports grew by 18.8 per cent from KSh 344.9 billion in 2009 to KSh 409.8 billion in 2010; in contrast, the value of imports grew by 20.2 per cent to KSh 947.4 billion in 2010 compared to a marginal growth of 2.3 per cent in 2009.
Sources: Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (2011) and Deloitte’s Economic Outlook 2011
Economy
