FACTBOX: Key facts on Kenya's economy
(Reuters) - Ethnic violence following disputed elections has claimed the lives of some 486 people in Kenya.
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. Continued...



