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Kenya’s Inflation Drops To 3.83% As Economic Growth Slows To 5.6% In Q2 2019

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Kenya’s overall year-on-year inflation fell to 3.83% in September, from 5.0% in August, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) has disclosed.

However, the country’s economy grew by 5.6% in the second quarter of this year, down from expanding 6.4% in the same period a year earlier, the statistics office said on Monday.

In a report emailed from Nairobi on Monday, the national statistics body noted that while a number of sectors posted impressive performances, the overall growth was curtailed mostly by a slowdown in activities of agriculture, manufacturing and transportation.

“Agriculture’s performance, as well as that of electricity and water supply, was mostly hampered by a delay in the onset of the long rains. The transportation industry was negatively impacted on by rise in prices of fuel,”

“On the other hand, accommodation and food services; information and communication; wholesale and retail trade; and construction industries maintained high growths and thereby supported the overall gross domestic product (GDP) growth,” the KNBS said.

According to the statistics bureau, between August and September 2019, food and non-alcoholic drinks index decreased by 0.40 percent due to a drop-in price of some foodstuffs outweighing increases recorded in others.

  “The ‘year on year’ food inflation dropped from 7.13 percent in August 2019 to 6.31 per cent in September 2019,” it said.

In September 2019, prices of carrots, cabbages and tomatoes decreased by 9.80, 6.32 and 4.14 percent, respectively.

The price of sugar registered a 24 per cent drop with a kilogram retailing at Sh106 last month from Sh140 last year. Irish potatoes, kales and onions similarly recorded significant drops in prices with a kilogram of each going down by 15, 18 and eight per cent respectively compared to retail prices recorded over a similar period last year. The Standard newspaper reported on Tuesday.

  Zachary Mwangi, KNBS director general observed that the agricultural sector is estimated to have grown by 4.1 percent compared to 6.5 percent in a similar period last year.

“The slowed growth was mainly attributed to delayed long rains that somewhat curtailed agricultural production. However, performance of the sector was supported by a 17.6 percent increase in the volume of cut flowers from 35,800 metric tons in the second quarter of 2018 to 42,100 metric tons in the review period,” Mwangi said.

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