Agriculture and Service Sectors Drive Kenya’s Economy in Q2 2018

Kenya’s economy expanded 6.3 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2018 from 4.7 percent in the same period in 2017, according to the latest data by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).
“The growth was against a backdrop of a fairly stable macroeconomic environment and favorable weather conditions. During the review period, the country experienced heavy rains that impacted positively on most of the agricultural and generation of hydroelectricity activities,” said the statistics body.
In the review, the agriculture, and electricity and water supply recorded significant improvements to grow by 5.6 percent and 8.6 percent compared to growths of 0.8 percent and 6.0 percent, respectively during the second quarter of 2017.
“The sector’s performance was mainly supported by substantial increases in output of growing of crops and animal
production sub-sectors. The increased production was also reflected in notable declines in the prices of key food crops during the quarter in the review compared to prices recorded in the same quarter of 2017.” 
Accommodation and food service and Information and communication recorded the highest growths of 15.7 percent and 12.6 percent, respectively in the quarter under review. “The increased activity in the sector was mainly attributable to improved security situation, stable political environment in the country and aggressive marketing strategies undertaken by the government.” 
The statistics body also observed that manufacturing sector recovered from a contraction of 0.2 percent recorded in
the second quarter of 2017 to expand by 3.1 percent in the quarter under review partly attributable to agro-processing activities that benefitted substantially from increased agricultural production during the period under review.