{"id":52361,"date":"2014-09-30T11:15:57","date_gmt":"2014-09-30T11:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=52361"},"modified":"2014-09-30T11:23:05","modified_gmt":"2014-09-30T11:23:05","slug":"kenyas-economy-overtakes-ghanas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/09\/kenyas-economy-overtakes-ghanas\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya’s economy overtakes Ghana’s"},"content":{"rendered":"
Kenya\u2019s economy overtook those of Ghana and Tunisia after the statistics agency overhauled its data to increase the size of gross domestic product by a quarter.<\/p>\n
GDP was measured at $55.2 billion last year from $44.1 billion previously, Zachary Mwangi, acting director-general of the statistics agency, told reporters in the capital, Nairobi. That compares with the World Bank\u2019s estimates of $48 billion for Ghana and $47 billion for Tunisia.<\/p>\n
Kenya revised its data to take account of expanding industries such as mobile-phone money transfers and informal businesses, while also changing the base year of the figures to 2009 from 2001. Last year\u2019s growth rate was adjusted to 5.7 percent from 4.7 percent, Mwangi said.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”0EmIQvJKnNBVBoezeFRSjTN5XpQzIfJp”]\u201cThe rebased GDP estimates put Kenya among the lower middle-income nations,\u201d Planning Secretary Anne Waiguru told reporters. The data \u201cdemonstrates that the economy is larger, but doesn\u2019t mean that people are less poor or wealthier than they were yesterday,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The shilling fell 0.3 percent to 89.35 against the dollar as of 1:47 p.m. in Nairobi after earlier strengthening to 89.15 following the publication of the data.<\/p>\n
Borrowing Costs<\/strong><\/p>\n An increase in the size of GDP will help to lower Kenya\u2019s debt ratios, improving the nation\u2019s ability to borrow. It may also reduce Kenya\u2019s access to low interest-rate loans, although the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have said the move won\u2019t close off Kenya\u2019s access to concessional funds.<\/p>\n The rebasing \u201cmakes it more attractive as a country in Africa that can raise local currency debt and US-dollar dominated debt,\u201d Angus Downie, head of economic research at Ecobank Transnational Inc., said by phone today from London. \u201cKenya as an investment looks more appealing\u201d with budget and current-account deficit ratios improving, he said.<\/p>\n