Agriculture spurs Kenya's GDP growth to 6.3pc in 2018: Economic Survey

Economy

Agriculture spurs Kenya's GDP growth to 6.3pc in 2018: Economic Survey

Thursday, April 25, 2019 12:05

By BASILLIOH MUTAHIBy REUTERS

Kenya's economy grew by 6.3 percent in 2018, helped by an impressive growth in agriculture, manufacturing and transport sectors.

The agriculture sector grew by 6.6 percent, the highest in five years, data from the Economic Survey 2019 released on Thursday shows.

Agriculture accounts for close to a third of Kenya’s annual economic output.

Transport and storage services sector also grew to a five-year high of 8.8 percent.

Manufacturing sector grew at a faster rate of 4.2 percent in 2018, compared with 0.5 percent in 2017.

However, the construction sector grew at a slower pace of 6.6 percent compared with 8.5 percent in 2017.

The economic survey data shows that the country's financial sector grew at 5.6 percent in 2018 compared with 2.8 percent the previous year.

Kenya, East Africa’s richest economy, is one of the fastest growing areas on the continent but its performance is often hit by drought.

Violence after a December 2007 presidential election and disputes over the following two polls led some investors to scale back investment, hurting growth.

Missed revenue targets, rising public debt and uncontrolled expenditure have also emerged as concerns for investors in recent years.

The World Bank trimmed its 2019 economic growth forecast for Kenya to 5.7 percent from an earlier forecast of 5.8 percent due to a delayed onset of the main rain season.

The government expects the economy to grow by 6.3 percent in 2019, President Uhuru Kenyatta said earlier this month.