NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 26-Kenya’s economic growth for 2020 has now been revised downwards to 0.6 percent.
Speaking during the public hearings on the financial year 2021/2022, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani said the new projection has been influenced by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the global and domestic economy.
“It is important for us to underscore that what happens in the global arena has major implications in the performance of our economy. The on-going COVID-19 pandemic and the associated economic crises are likely to deplete domestic public resources by affecting tax and non-tax revenues,” reads Yatani’s statement.
“In this respect, the growth outlook for 2020 has been revised downwards following receipt of more recent indicators, the contraction of economy recorded for the second quarter of 2020 and the global projections released in October 2020. In this respect, economic growth for 2020 is projected at 0.6 percent in 2020 and 6.4 percent in 2021,” he added.
The CS however painted a positive outlook in the economy citing signs of recovery in Agriculture albeit with weaknesses in the tourism and education sectors.
“The growth outlook will be supported by stable macroeconomic environment, ongoing investments in strategic priorities of the Government under the “Big Four” Agenda, turn around in trade as economies recover from Covid-19 Pandemic and expected favorable weather that will support agricultural output,” reads Yatani’s statement.
Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani had earlier said that the country’s economic growth will not go below 2.5 percent.
Meanwhile, the World Bank on Wednesday said the economy will contract by between 1.0 percent and 1.5 percent in 2020, as ongoing COVID-19 containment measures and behavioral responses restrict activity in Kenya and its trading partners.
World Bank noted that the downturn in economic growth reflects the more severe economic impact of the pandemic to date than had been initially anticipated, including a large impact on the national accounts of the closure of educational institutions since March
