Kenyan Economy Expands 6% as Farming Production Recovers

(Bloomberg) -- Kenya’s economy grew 6 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier as the nation benefits from a continued rebound in farm output.

Expansion in gross domestic product in East Africa’s biggest economy in the three months through September compared with 6.3 percent in the previous quarter, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics said Monday in a statement emailed from Nairobi, the capital. The number matched the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey.

Key Insights:

• The Kenyan economy grew 4.9 percent in 2017, the slowest pace in five years, as the combined impact of a drought and protracted elections suppressed output in the world’s largest shipper of black tea.
• The farming sector in Kenya, which supplies about a third of the flowers sold in Europe, contributes about 35 percent to the country’s total output.
• Tea production rose 12 percent from a year earlier. Together with horticulture, it’s Kenya’s biggest foreign-exchange earner after remittances.
• Agricultural output climbed 5.2 percent, while manufacturing rose 3.2 percent.
• Expansion in financial services quickened to 2.6 percent from 2.3 percent amid an interest-rate cap that’s constrained lending. Kenya’s Treasury has raised its full-year growth estimate to 6 percent, while the central bank says it may revise its 6.2 percent expansion target.

To contact the reporter on this story: Adelaide Changole in Nairobi at achangole2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rene Vollgraaff at rvollgraaff@bloomberg.net, Ana Monteiro

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