The rebound of the agriculture sector lifted the economic growth last year to 5.6 percent from revised 4.9 percent in 2022.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) released the Economic Survey 2024 on Monday, detailing how various sectors and jobs market performed.
Sector performance
Agricultural sector recovered from a second consecutive year contraction to grow by seven percent in 2023. The previous year the sector had contracted by a -2.3 percent. The growth was boosted by increased production of milk, sugarcane, tea and horticultural produce, KNBS data shows. The sector’s contribution to the GDP growth was 19.8 percent.
The manufacturing sector grew at a slower rate of 2.7 percent last year after recording a 3.7 percent growth rate in 2022.
The real estate sector was the second biggest contributor to the economy at 13.3 percent. The number of housing units completed under the affordable housing programme was 3,357, up from 1,390. Expenditure on housing stood at Sh92.5 billion in financial year 2023/24, an increase from Sh9.1 billion from the previous period.
The depletion of titanium ore, mined by Kwale-based Base Titanium, has seen a drop in mineral production to 4.3 percent last year, KNBS said.
Highlights
Formal employment grew by 2.7 percent to 362,300 last year.
International visitor arrivals have surpassed the pre-pandemic levels, growing by 35.4 percent to 2.1 million in 2023.
Passport issued dropped by 5.1 percent to 404,028 in 2023 due to frequent processing hitches at the Immigration Department at Nyayo House.
Crimes reported increased by 19 percent to 104,842, pointing to increased insecurity.
Total number of cybercrimes reported in 2023 more than doubled to 1.7 billion from 700 million in 2022, attributed to system vulnerabilities.
