Kenya: Economy looking up despite Omicron-variant scare

Kenya’s economy is expected to grow by 6.4 percent by end of 2021 and 6.0 percent in 2022, according to estimates by the Central bank of Kenya whose forecasts are higher than the September’s 6.1 percent growth for this year and 5.6 percent in 2022.

Indeed, statistics show that in the second quarter of 2021, Kenya’s real GDP grew by 10.1 percent, the first such growth in the country’s economic history registering an impressive GDP growth of Sh11 trillion today from Sh4.74 trillion eight years ago.

That figure suggests that Kenya has gained more wealth than any other country in Africa, for a country that in 2013 ranked 12th wealthiest in Africa’s.

The impressive figures (GDP new figures) are being attributed to the relaxed restrictions, lifting of curfew as well as Government’s relentless efforts aimed at vaccinating its citizens against the Coronavirus.

As a result, key sectors including the financial markets are looking up despite the existing global ‘confusion’ caused by the new variant of Covid-19, Omicron.

On a continental level, Africa is projected to recover in 2021 from its worst economic recession in half a century. Economic activity in Africa was constrained in 2020 by an unprecedented global pandemic caused by COVID–19. Real GDP in Africa is projected to grow by 3.4 percent in 2021, after contracting by 2.1 percent in 2020.

Global real GDP is now forecast to increase by 5.7 percent in 2021 (a 0.2 percentage point downgrade since July 2021), and by 4.8 percent in 2022 (a 0.2 percentage point improvement relative to the July 2021 forecast).