The National Treasury has projected Kenya’s economy to grow by 6.6% from an estimated growth of 0.6% in 2020, the highest growth rate in at least a decade, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
This is occasioned by a speedy vaccination program even as the services sector begins to rebound from a brutal pandemic fallout.
The government is moving to ramp up vaccination, with doses from its order of at least 13 million Johnson & Johnson shots expected to start arriving this month, in a bid to avoid any more economy-crippling lockdowns.
Treasury CS Ukur Yatani says the reopening of hotels, restaurants and an improvement in travel due to the easing of movement restrictions will help the services industry to lift its contribution to GDP growth to a projected average of 6% this year. According to a central bank survey, the number of hotel workers climbed to 62% of pre-pandemic levels in July.
Yatani further says that the budget deficit is expected to narrow to 5.6% of the gross domestic product in 2022-23 from a target of 7.5% of GDP in the year that started July 1. That partly depends on the authorities achieving a growth target in ordinary revenue of 20.6% in the next fiscal year, while reducing expenditure as a portion of GDP.
See Also:
