Kenya Economic Outlook 2019: The Kenyan economy grew by 6.3 per cent in the year 2018. This has been stated by the newly released Economic Survey 2019.
According to the survey, the economic growth was driven by significant growths in the agriculture, transport, and manufacturing sectors. It was an increase from the GDP growth of 4.7 per cent that was recorded in the year 2017.
Strikingly, the agricultural sector recorded the highest growth in the past five years. It grew by a rate of 6 per cent. 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.
The World Bank had projected that the economy would grow by 5.5 per cent in 2018. “In the medium-term, growth in the Kenyan economy is forecast to recover to 5.5 per cent in 2018. Kenya Economic Outlook 2019 will be a growth of 5.9 per cent, though this is contingent upon its implementation of supportive economic reforms and its prudent management of macroeconomic stability,” said the World Bank in a statement.
Economic growth is expected to remain strong in Kenya and the rest of East Africa this year and the next. This means that economy will sustain the growth level of over 6 per cent until year 2020.
Currently, East Africa ranks as the fastest growing part of Sub-Saharan Africa, according to the UN’s World Economic Situation and Prospects 2019. This report said overall economic expansion in EA measured 6.2 percent in 2018 and is forecast to accelerate to 6.4 percent (2019) and 6.5 percent in 2020.