Kenya’s economy grew by 6.3 percent in 2018, helped by impressive growth in agriculture, manufacturing and transport sectors.
This was a rebound from the 4.7 percent growth in 2017, the slowest growth in five years—amid effects of adverse weather and political jitters in the election year.
Adequate rainfall, the survey, released in Nairobi yesterday, said also triggered growth in other sectors of the economy, for example, manufacturing, agribusiness and beverage sub-sectors of manufacturing sector benefited from high agricultural production.
Launching the survey, National Treasury and Planning Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich observed that the performance of agriculture sector in the review period follows the poor performance in 2017 when the economy suffered from prolonged drought, leading to the steep rise in food prices.
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 per cent.
The manufacturing sector grew at a faster rate of 4.2 percent in 2018, compared with 0.5 percent in 2017.
Maize production increased by 26 percent from 35.4 million bags in 2017 to 44.6 million bags in 2018, the highest harvest the country has ever registered in the last decade.
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