Kenya's economy slows in first quarter to 4.1%

 Kenya's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 4.1 percent in the first quarter, down from 5.2 percent during the same period in 2013, the national statistics bureau said on Monday.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) attributed the reduced growth to activities in agriculture and forestry, and fishing which recorded slowed growths while activities of the hotels and restaurants contracted during the review period.
"The deceleration in growth of the hotel industry was largely due to insecurity concerns coupled with negative travel advisories by some key tourist source countries," KNBS said in its latest report for the first quarter.
"Another factor that constrained economic growth during the quarter was the erratic weather pattern that resulted in depressed agricultural output," it said.
However, the bureau said the 4.1 percent was buoyed by the activities of transport and communication, manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, mining and quarrying and electricity industries.
The bureau said quantities of exports of cut flowers and vegetables declined, while that of fruits rose significantly. Activities of other key crops, in particular cereals were negatively affected by the erratic rains during the quarter.
The statistics bureau said the first quarter of 2014 experienced a relatively stable macroeconomic environment despite interest rates remaining comparatively high.
Inflation rose moderately but was nevertheless contained at an average of 6.78 percent during the first quarter of 2014 compared to 4.08 percent in the same quarter of 2013.
The report comes after the government has started reviewing how formula GDP is measured in order to improve decision making.
The formula which is referred to as rebasing would see the GDP expand by 20 percent, making Kenya a middle-income economy by next month.
KNSB said the government is set to revise calculations of the size and composition of the economy in a "rebasing" exercise. GDP rebasing typically involves changing the year from which values are compared.
The bureau said the revision of the economic indicators requires a wide range of datasets that should be analyzed in a coherent, consistent and integrated approach in order to achieve the overall goal of improved economic statistics.
Economic experts said the current GDP, which was rebased in 2001, does not factor in the invention of the Internet, the coming of mobile phones and mobile money transfer services.