NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenyan private sector activity fell in April, hurt by rising consumer inflation and supply shortfalls for some goods.
The S&P Global Kenya Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dropped to 49.5 from 50.5 a month earlier. The 50.0 mark separates growth in activity from contractions.
“Kenyan companies saw a renewed deterioration in business conditions in April, as PMI survey data signalled a decrease in customer demand in response to rising consumer prices and living costs,” S&P Global said in text accompanying the survey.
“A solid fall in output was also registered as firms experienced supply shortfalls for a number of items and a near-record rise in input prices.”
Consumer inflation rose to 6.47% year-on-year in April from 5.56% a month earlier, data from the statistics office showed.
The survey said due to the higher inflation, customer demand had in turn slowed.
“Domestic demand fell, driven by reduced client spending following significant increases in food and fuel prices,” Kuria Kamau, Fixed Income and Currency Strategist at Stanbic Bank, said.
(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
