NAIROBI, Kenya, July 1 -Kenya’s economy continues to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic after its GDP grew by 6.8 percent in the first three months of 2022 aided mainly by the accommodation and food services sector which grew by 56.2 percent.
According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the accelerated growth of the hotel sector was evidenced by a 85 percent increase in the number of visitors arrivals through Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and Moi International Airport (MIA).
The arrivals rose from 121,739 in Q12021 to 225,321 visitors in Q12022.
The GDP growth was also supported by the manufacturing, construction, financial, and insurance sectors which grew by 3.7 percent, 6.4 percent, and 14.4 percent each while the transportation and storage sector grew by 8.1 percent.
“The performance was supported by rebounds in most economic activities that had contracted significantly in the first quarter of 2021
due to measures instituted to curb the spread of COVID-19,” KNBS said in its quarterly GDP report.
The agriculture sector, nonetheless contracted by 0.7 percent attributed to depressed rainfall during the fourth quarter of 2021 as well as delayed onset of rains during the first quarter of the year.
“The poor performance of the sector as evidenced by the significant decline in horticultural exports and tea production. The volume of fruits and vegetable exports declined notably in the first quarter of 2022 compared to a similar quarter of 2021,” the agency said.
Revived sugarcane production, as well as increased milk and coffee production, cushioned the agriculture sector from further decline.
“The volume of cane deliveries increased by 6.3 percent to 2,180.3 thousand metric tonnes, the volume of milk intake increased by 3.3 percent to stand at 197.5 million liters while coffee exports increased by 2.1 percent to 11,923.1 metric,” KNBS added.
Under the manufacturing sector, the food sub-sector expanded by 6.4 percent with coffee processing registering a substantial growth. Cement production, on the other hand, grew by 30.1 percent and was a key driver of the growth of the non-food subsector growth.
“Nevertheless, there was a decline in tea processed as evidenced by a 3.7 percent drop in tea production,” KNBS added.
Over the same period, the broad money supply (M3) expanded to Shs 4,221.2 billion at end of March 2022 from Shs 4,030.0 billion at end of March 2021.
