Kenyan Economic Growth Steady in Second Quarter Amid Drought

(Bloomberg) -- Kenya’s economic growth remained unchanged in the second quarter as a drought weighed on agriculture.

Gross domestic product in East Africa’s biggest economy rose 5.6% in the three months through June from a year earlier, the same rate as in the previous quarter, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics said Monday in a statement emailed from Nairobi, the capital. That compares with the 5.5% median estimate of six economist in a Bloomberg survey.

Key Insights:

• While growth was slightly higher than estimated, it slowed from last year, when GDP expanded 6.4% in the second quarter. It “was curtailed mostly by a slowdown in activities of agriculture, manufacturing and transportation,” the statistics agency said. The number fell short of the central bank’s forecast of 5.8% and Governor Patrick Njoroge said last week the bank would review its full-year estimate of 6% after the data for the three months through June is released.
• Growth in agriculture slowed to 4.1% after from 5.2% in the first quarter. Farming in Kenya contributes about 30% to the country’s total output. The nation supplies a third of the flowers sold in Europe and is the world’s biggest shipper of black tea.
• Expansion in the manufacturing sector picked up to 4.2% from 3.2% in the three months through March. Construction growth was 7.2%, from 5.6% in the first quarter.

To contact the reporter on this story: Helen Nyambura in Nairobi at hnyambura@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Malingha at dmalingha@bloomberg.net, Helen Nyambura, Rene Vollgraaff

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.