• Most Popular
  • Most Shared

FACTBOX: Key facts on Kenya's economy

Mon Jan 7, 2008 8:26am EST

(Reuters) - Ethnic violence following disputed elections has claimed the lives of some 486 people in Kenya.

World

The violence has threatened to deter investors from east Africa's largest economy, which has been on the road to economic recovery since President Mwai Kibaki's administration came to power in late 2002.

Following are some key facts about the Kenyan economy:

* KENYA'S ECONOMY:

-- Kenya's economy grew 6.1 percent in 2006 compared with a revised growth rate of 5.7 percent the previous year. The government expects it between 6.9 and 7.0 percent in 2007.

-- World Bank figures show gross domestic product at $21.2 billion for 2006, with per capita income of about $580.

-- The shilling was trading at 63.35/45 against the dollar last week compared to a year low of 71.55/65 in January 2007.

-- Annual inflation rose to 11.8 percent in November from 10.6 percent in October. Underlying inflation, which excludes food prices, stood at 5.8 percent in November.

* TOURISM AND OTHER SECTORS:

-- Kenya received more than $870 million from tourism in 2006, catapulting it ahead of horticulture and tea as its biggest foreign currency earner, with revenue topping $1 billion in 2007.

-- Manufacturing, accounting for about a tenth of GDP, grew 6.9 percent in 2006 and 7.4 percent during the first quarter of 2007, compared with 7.1 percent in the first quarter of 2006.

-- Agriculture -- representing a quarter of GDP -- expanded by 5.4 percent in 2006 and by 12 percent in the first quarter of 2007, compared with 0.3 percent in the same period in 2006, boosted by tea production.

-- Kenya produced a total 108,701 tons of tea in the first quarter of 2007, up from 49,470 tons in the same period in 2006. However, coffee production declined to 16,573 tons in the first quarter of 2007 from 17,606 tons a year before.

CORRUPTION & UNREST:

-- Kenya's business community says the country is losing 2 billion shillings ($31.45 million) worth of taxes daily due to businesses being shut, partly as a result of political unrest.

-- According to a survey of 78 companies by PricewaterhouseCoopers, more than two-thirds of Kenyan companies have suffered from corruption or other economic crimes in the past two years, losing an average of nearly $300,000 each.

-- In 2006, the IMF and World Bank delayed handing over millions of dollars in aid to Kenya over graft scandals, but both institutions resumed lending in 2007.

Sources: Reuters; Government of Kenya; World Bank (www.worldbank.org)

(Writing by Nagesh Narayana; Edited by David Cutler and George Obulutsa)



More from Reuters

Tea Party member Mike Kopczyk holds a sign during a rally marking the one-year anniversary of the movement in Troy, Michigan February 27, 2010. Some Tea Partiers say they can pinpoint the precise moment when they made it clear to the Republican Party they had no intention of being its lapdog. Picture taken February 27, 2010. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

Special Report: Tea Partiers vs. Republicans

Tea Partiers want it known that they are not Republican Party lapdogs, but are they a fringe movement or a sleeping giant, awakened?  Full Article 

    President Barack Obama (L) claps with bi-partisan members of Congress after signing into legislation the HIRE Act in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, March 18, 2010. REUTERS/Larry Downing

    CBO: Health bill to cut deficit

    Democrats predicted weekend passage of a sweeping healthcare overhaul that budget analysts say would hit fiscal targets and cut the deficit.  Full Article 

     Billionaire financier and Berkshire Hathaway Chief Executive Warren Buffett attends the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska May 2, 2009. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

    Adoration is not a strategy

    A graduate student has Wall Street buzzing after offering some straight-shooting advice on investing in Warren Buffett’s empire.  Full Article