THE economy registered a 5.2 per cent growth rate in the first quarter of this financial year, Treasury records show.
This is an improvement from the 3.9 per cent growth rate achieved in the first quarter of last year.
"The expansion in GDP growth was primarily due to positive growth in all sectors of the economy," Treasury says in its latest quartely economic review. Strong growth was recorded in electricity supply, financial services and wholesale and retail trade sectors."
According to the report, performance in the quarter was supported mainly by growth in agriculture of 8.3 per cent from 2.1 per cent in a similar quarter of 2012.
The construction sector grew by 13.5 per cent from 3.1 per cent in a similar quarter of 2012 while the transport and communication sector increased by 4.1 per cent from 6.9 per cent in a similar quarter of 2012.
"Sectoral performance slowed mainly in financial intermediation by 1.2 per cent from 3.1 per cent and hotels and restaurants by 8.0 per cent from 3.2 per cent in a similar quarter of 2012.
The stock market has shown some vibrancy in the year to June 2013. The NSE share index improved from 3,704 points in June 2012 to 4,846.8 points in June 2013, representing an increase of 30.9 per cent, the report shows. Market capitalisation that measures shareholders’ wealth improved by 47.0 per cent in the year to June 2013 to close at Sh1.6 trillion from Sh1.1 trillion in June 2012.
Yesterday devolution cabinet secretary Anne Waiguru said the second medium term plan for Vision 2030 projects for between 2013 and 2017 will focus on moving the economy towards achieving a growth rate of 10 per cent. The plan, which will be launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta next month, will prioritise policies, programmes and projects to reduce poverty and inequality.
This year, the World Bank projects Kenya's economy to grow by 5.7 per cent picking to 6 per cent next year. Kenya however needs to reduce its importing culture and focus more on exports and at the same time be able to attract more foreign direct investments.
The World Bank has however warned the current growth model cannot push growth rates to 10 per cent as per Vision 2030 dreams.
"The overall level of savings and investment needs to increase in order to raise the economy's potential growth," the bank said in its latest economic outlook report on Kenya.
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