NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s economy grew by 5.2% in the second quarter of this year compared with 11.0% in the same period last year, the statistics office said on Tuesday.
The second quarter growth fell sharply in comparison with the same period last year when Kenya’s economy surged thanks to a rebound helped by relaxed COVID-19 curbs in East Africa’s largest economy.
The second quarter of this year showed economic momentum was largely driven by financial services, insurance, transportation and wholesale and retail trade among others, said the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.
Howevere, output from agriculture, forestry and fishing activities contracted for the third consecutive quarter, “mainly attributed to unfavourable weather conditions that characterized the last quarter of 2021 and the first half of 2022.”
The East African nation has experienced rapid growth rates in recent years, partly due to its diverse economy, which does not rely on a single commodity or one major trading partner.
The economy is projected to grow by 5.5% this year, as it continues to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Growth rebounded to 7.5% last year after a contraction of 0.3 percent in 2020.
In the first quarter of this year, the economy expanded by 6.8% from a revised 2.7% in the same period a year earlier, due to a recovery in most economic activities that had contracted significantly in the first quarter of 2021 due to COVID-19.
(Writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by James Macharia Chege)
