Kenya’s GDP growth in Q3 2021 at 9.9 pc – KNBS

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 1 – Kenya’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at 9.9 percent in the third quarter of 2021, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics has revealed attributing the growth to hotel and education sector which grew at 24.8 and 64.7 percent respectively.

During a similar period in 2020, the economy contracted by 2.1 percent at a time when the economy was still reeling form the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In its quarterly report, KNBS said that manufacturing, transportation and financial activities  grew by 9.5, 13.0,  6.7 percent respectively while electricity and Water Supply sector recorded an accelerated growth of 4.5 per cent.

Agricultural sector, nonetheless, contracted by 1.8 per cent in Q3 2021 compared to a growth of 4.2 per cent in the corresponding quarter of 2020 due to drought conditions witnessed in most parts of the country.

“The dismal performance of the sector was evident in the significant decline in fruit exports, cane deliveries, tea production and coffee exports. The volume of fruit exports and cane deliveries declined by 19.9 and 5.6 per cent respectively, production of tea and coffee declined by 5.9 and 24.1 per cent, respectively,” KNBS said.

Hotel sector witnessed the highest recovery after growing by 24.8 per cent compared to 63.4 per cent contraction in the third quarter of 2020.

“Sector activities picked up in the review period after relaxation of most of the restriction measures in the fourth quarter of 2020. The improved performance was manifest in the significant increase in the number of visitor arrivals from 34,701 in the third quarter of 2020 to 217,873 visitors in the third quarter of 2021,” the report noted.

Construction sector, KNBS said” performed slower” having reported  a growth of 6.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2021 compared to 12.5 per cent growth in the third quarter of 2020

Over the same period, KNBS noted that inflation edged upwards from an average of 4.31 per cent in the third quarter of 2020 to 6.68 per cent mainly owing to increase in prices of food, non-alcoholic beverages and transport.

“The Kenyan Shilling depreciated against all major international trading currencies except the Japanese Yen in the third quarter of 2021 compared to the same quarter of 2020,” the report added.

KNBS had projected the country’s economic growth to grow over six percent in 2021 after declining by 0.3 percent in 2020.

Kenya’s GDP Growth In Q2 2021 Reported At 10.1pc with President Uhuru Kenyatta lauding the double digit growth as a testament to the country’s resilience amid the COVID-19 pandemic which disrupted businesses across the globe

“Given that we have doubled our GDP in a record 8 years, it is no wonder Kenya is projected to grow twice as fast as the sub-Saharan economies in the period of 2021-2022 and all this because of leadership and the power of choice given to our citizens,” he said.