Kenya Economy:
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 27 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. In 2003, progress was made in rooting out corruption and encouraging donor support, with GDP growth edging up to 1.7%. GDP grew a moderate 2.2% in 2004.
GDP (purchasing power parity):
$34.68 billion (2004 est.)
GDP real growth rate:
2.2% (2004 est.)
GDP per capita:
purchasing power parity: $1,100 (2004 est.)
GDP composition by sector:
agriculture: 19.3%
industry: 18.5%
services: 62.4%
(2004)
Labor force:
11.4 million (2004 est.)
Labor force by occupation:
agriculture: 75% (2003 est.)
Unemployment rate:
40% (2001 est.)
Population below poverty line:
50% (2000 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 2%
highest 10%: 37.2% (2000)
Distribution of family income Gini index:
44.9 (1997 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
9% (2004 est.)
Investment (gross fixed):
14.7% of GDP (2004 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $2.89 billion (2004 est.)
expenditures: $3.44 billion including capital expenditures of NA (2004 est.)
Public debt:
74.3% of GDP (2004 est.)
Agriculture products:
Tea, coffee, corn, wheat, sugarcane, fruit, vegetables; dairy products, beef, pork, poultry, eggs
Industries:
small-scale consumer goods (plastic, furniture, batteries, textiles, soap, cigarettes, flour), agricultural products; oil refining, aluminum, steel, lead, cement; commercial ship repair, tourism
Industrial production growth rate:
2.6% (2004 est.)
Electricity production:
4.47 billion kWh (2002 est.)
Electricity consumption:
4.34 billion kWh (2002 est.)
Electricity exports:
0 kWh (2002 est.)
Electricity imports:
175 million kWh (2002 est.)
Oil production:
0 bbl/day (2004 est.)
Oil consumption:
57,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil exports:
NA
Oil imports:
NA
Current account balance:
$-459.2 million (2004 est.)
Exports:
$2.59 billion (f.o.b. 2004 est.)
Exports commodities:
tea, horticultural products, coffee, petroleum products, fish, cement
Exports partners:
Uganda 13.3%, UK 11.4%, US 10.6%, Netherlands 8.2%, Egypt 4.9%, Tanzania 4.5%, Pakistan 4.3% (2004)
Imports:
$4.19 billion (f.o.b. 2004 est.)
Imports commodities:
machinery and transportation equipment, petroleum products, motor vehicles, iron and steel, resins and plastics
Imports partners:
UK 6.7%, UAE 12.6%, Japan 5%, India 7.2%, South Africa 8.8%, Saudi Arabia 9.1%, US 7.7%, China 6.4% (2004)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
$1.5 billion (2004 est.)
Debt external:
$1.5 billion (2004 est.)
Economic aid recipient:
$453 million (1997 est.)
Currency:
Kenyan shilling (KES)
Exchange rates:
Kenyan shillings per US$: 79.17 (2004 est.), 75.94 (2003 est.), 78.75 (2002 est.), 78.56 (2001 est.), 76.18 (2000 est.)
Fiscal year:
1 July - 30 June
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