Editorial

Kenya’s economy is doing much better than expected – President Kenyatta

PublishedAugust 27, 2020

In his state address on Wednesday, President Uhuru Kenyatta revealed that Kenya’s economy is doing much better than what the government had projected.

Statistics have shown that the country is fighting tooth and nail to survive despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Reviewing the results today, I must admit that we have done better than we expected. For instance, even under COVID, the economy has grown by 4.6 per cent compared to 5.5 per cent last year. Inflation is lower today at 4.4 per cent compared to 6.3 per cent during the same period last year; the current economic indicators are far better than we anticipated,” President Kenyatta said.

The Private Sector Activity has also improved significantly. For instance, the Stanbic Bank Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) increased to 54.2 points in July, from 46.6 points in June.

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“Notably, the removal of county travel restrictions supported output and business sentiment in July. This enabled firms to receive inputs much quicker, as supplier delivery times improved,” the Stanbic Bank Regional Economist for East Africa Jibran Qureishi said on August 5, 2020.

The relaxation of the Covid-19 restriction measures has contributed to the growth of the economy, to a great extent. On July 6, 2020, President Kenyatta lifted the ban that restricted travelling in and out of Nairobi, Mombasa and Mandera. Domestic and international flights resumed on July 15th and August 1strespectively.

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yattani on Wednesday said that he expects the economy to expand by 2.6 per cent this year. The International Monetary Fund had earlier on predicted that Kenya’s economy will grow by only 0.3 per cent while World Bank expects Kenya’s economy to grow by 1.5 per cent.

During the first quarter of 2020, the economy grew by 4.9 per cent which is the lowest since mid-2017. The real state of the economy will be known when the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics releases the unemployment statistics of the second quarter on August 31, 2020. KNBS will publish the GDP of the second quarter at the end of September.