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- May 11, 2013
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Tourists sample the wildebeest migration at Masai Mara game reserve Photo/File
Kenya's economy grew at a faster pace in the first quarter of this year compared to 2014, boosted by the tourism industry's recovery.
The first quarter Gross Domestic Report shows the economy grew by 5.9 per cent compared to five per cent in a corresponding period last year.
The report was published by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.
"The most notable improvement was a rebound in activities of accommodation and food services which expanded by 12.1 per cent in the period under review compared to a contraction of 11.4 per cent during the same quarter in 2015," states the report.
But the manufacturing industry failed to leverage on the cheaper oil prices to accelerate its growth. It posted a slower growth pace of 3.6 per cent compared to 4.1 per cent previously.
The transport sub-sector rode on the lower oil prices to expand at a faster pace of 8.4 per cent compared to 6.7 per cent last year. Agriculture grew by 4.8 per cent compared to 2.9 per cent in Q1 2015.
Construction, which had posted an impressive growth of 12.6 per cent last year, slowed down to post a growth of 9.9 per cent.
"The information and communication sector expanded by 9.7 per cent in the first quarter compared to 8.6 per cent growth in the same quarter of 2015," states the report.
"The sustained growth in this sector has been on account of strong performance in mobile telephony. During the quarter under review, total mobile traffic increased by 16.9 per cent to stand at 10.2 billion minutes."
Kenya economy grew 5.9 per cent in Q1 boosted by tourism