Kenya Economy Profile 2008

Economy - overview

The regional hub for trade and finance in East Africa, Kenya has been hampered by corruption and by reliance upon several primary goods whose prices have remained low. In 1997, the IMF suspended Kenya's Enhanced Structural Adjustment Program due to the government's failure to maintain reforms and curb corruption. A severe drought from 1999 to 2000 compounded Kenya's problems, causing water and energy rationing and reducing agricultural output. As a result, GDP contracted by 0.2% in 2000. The IMF, which had resumed loans in 2000 to help Kenya through the drought, again halted lending in 2001 when the government failed to institute several anticorruption measures. Despite the return of strong rains in 2001, weak commodity prices, endemic corruption, and low investment limited Kenya's economic growth to 1.2%. Growth lagged at 1.1% in 2002 because of erratic rains, low investor confidence, meager donor support, and political infighting up to the elections. In the key December 2002 elections, Daniel Arap MOI's 24-year-old reign ended, and a new opposition government took on the formidable economic problems facing the nation. After some early progress in rooting out corruption and encouraging donor support, the KIBAKI government was rocked by high-level graft scandals in 2005 and 2006. In 2006 the World Bank and IMF delayed loans pending action by the government on corruption. The international financial institutions and donors have since resumed lending, despite little action on the government's part to deal with corruption. The scandals have not weighed down growth, with estimated real GDP growth at more than 6 percent in 2007.

GDP (purchasing power parity)

$57.65 billion (2007 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate)

$29.5 billion (2007 est.)

GDP - real growth rate

6.3% (2007 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP)

$1,600 (2007 est.)

GDP - composition by sector

agriculture: 23.8%
industry: 16.7%
services: 59.5% (2007 est.)

Population below poverty line

50% (2000 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share

lowest 10%: 2%
highest 10%: 37.2% (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices)

9.3% (2007 est.)

Investment (gross fixed)

22% of GDP (2007 est.)

Labor force

11.85 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation

agriculture: 75%
industry and services: 25% (2003 est.)

Unemployment rate

40% (2001 est.)

Distribution of family income - Gini index

44.5 (1997)

Budget

revenues: $5.444 billion
expenditures: $6.399 billion (2007 est.)

Public debt

50.8% of GDP (2007 est.)

Industries

small-scale consumer goods (plastic, furniture, batteries, textiles, clothing, soap, cigarettes, flour), agricultural products, horticulture, oil refining; aluminum, steel, lead; cement, commercial ship repair, tourism

Industrial production growth rate

6.1% (2007 est.)

Electricity - production

5.502 billion kWh (2005)

Electricity - consumption

4.464 billion kWh (2005)

Electricity - exports

0 kWh (2005)

Electricity - imports

28 million kWh (2005)

Oil - production

0 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption

64,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - imports

70,540 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - exports

8,563 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - proved reserves

0 bbl (1 January 2006 est.)

Natural gas - production

0 cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - consumption

0 cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - exports

0 cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - imports

0 cu m (2005)

Natural gas - proved reserves

0 cu m (1 January 2006 est.)

Current Account Balance

-$980 million (2007 est.)

Agriculture - products

tea, coffee, corn, wheat, sugarcane, fruit, vegetables; dairy products, beef, pork, poultry, eggs

Exports

$3.76 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.)

Exports - commodities

tea, horticultural products, coffee, petroleum products, fish, cement

Exports - partners

Uganda 15.9%, UK 10.3%, US 8.2%, Netherlands 7.9%, Tanzania 7.7%, Pakistan 4.9% (2006)

Imports

$7.602 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.)

Imports - commodities

machinery and transportation equipment, petroleum products, motor vehicles, iron and steel, resins and plastics

Imports - partners

UAE 11.8%, India 8.8%, China 8.3%, Saudi Arabia 8.3%, US 7%, South Africa 6.4%, UK 5.3%, Japan 4.7% (2006)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold

$3.1 billion (31 December 2007 est.)

Debt - external

$7.715 billion (31 December 2007 est.)

Stock of direct foreign investment - at home

$1.169 billion (2006 est.)

Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad

$124 million (2006 est.)

Market value of publicly traded shares

$11.38 billion (2006)

Economic aid - recipient

$768.3 million (2005)

Currency (code)

Kenyan shilling (KES)

Exchange rates

Kenyan shillings per US dollar - 68.309 (2007), 72.101 (2006), 75.554 (2005), 79.174 (2004), 75.936 (2003)

Fiscal year

1 July - 30 June