Economy

Kenya shines in sub-Sahara despite economic slowdown

econ

National Treasury building in Nairobi. The economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa is rebounding in 2017. file photo | nmg

While economic growth in Kenya has slowed, according to latest projections from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, it is still among the best performing sub-Saharan African economies according to the latest Pulse report from the World Bank.

Its latest data reveals that seven countries — Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Rwanda, Senegal, and Tanzania — continue to exhibit “economic resilience, supported by domestic demand, posting annual growth rates above 5.4 per cent in 2015-2017.

These countries house nearly 27 per cent of the region’s population and account for 13 per cent of the region’s total gross domestic product.

The report also says economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa is rebounding in 2017 after registering the worst decline in more than two decades in 2016.

The region is showing signs of recovery, and regional growth is projected to reach 2.6 per cent in 2017.

However, the report warns “recovery remains weak, with growth expected to rise only slightly above population growth, a pace that hampers efforts to boost employment and reduce poverty.”

Nigeria, South Africa, and Angola, the continent’s largest economies, are seeing a rebound from the sharp slowdown in 2016, but the recovery has been slow due to insufficient adjustment to low commodity prices and policy uncertainty.