Rainfall pushes Kenya's GDP to 6.3pc in second quarter - Capital Business
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The growth is attributable to favourable weather conditions as the country experienced heavy rains that impacted positively on most of the agricultural and generation of hydroelectricity activities/FILE

Kenya

Rainfall pushes Kenya’s GDP to 6.3pc in second quarter

The growth is attributable to favourable weather conditions as the country experienced heavy rains that impacted positively on most of the agricultural and generation of hydroelectricity activities/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 1, Kenya’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 6.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2018 compared to 4.7 per cent during a similar quarter in 2017 according to the latest data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).

The growth is attributable to favourable weather conditions as the country experienced heavy rains that impacted positively on most of the agricultural and generation of hydroelectricity activities.

Agriculture, electricity and water supply recorded significant improvements to grow by 5.6 per cent and 8.6 per cent compared to growths of 0.8 per cent and 6.0 per cent, respectively during the second quarter of 2017.

“The sector’s performance was buoyed by notable growths in production of key crops that benefited from sufficient rains experienced during the quarter. The volume of tea produced grew by 18.4 per cent in the quarter compared to a marginal growth of 1.0 per cent realized in the same quarter of 2017. Similarly, the volume of coffee produced rallied from a significant decline in 2017 to grow by 44.1 per cent during the quarter in review,” the report states.

Tourism recorded the highest growth as accommodation and food service grew by15.7 per cent followed by Information and communication that grew by 12.6 per cent in the period under review.

The manufacturing sector recovered from a contraction of 0.2 per cent recorded in the second quarter of 2017 to expand by 3.1 per cent in the quarter under review.

“The improvement in the sector was partly attributable to agro-processing activities that benefited substantially from increased agricultural production during the period under review,” the report indicates.

On the other hand, activities of the mining and quarrying and construction recorded the most notable deceleration in growths during the review period.

“Consumption of cement declined by 6.8 per cent in the quarter under review, an indication of slowed activity in the sector,” says the report.

The financial and Insurance Activities sector also slowed down from 3.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2017 to 2.3 per cent in the quarter under review.

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