Economy holds Kenya election spotlight
Saturday, 7 July 2007
Katie Nguyen
The smell of fresh cement thickens the air as builders in dust-smeared T-shirts hoist bricks up the side of an unfinished Nairobi apartment block.
Kenyans need only look at the rash of properties transforming the capital's skyline for proof of the country's economic resurgence in recent years.
"There's more demand than we can meet. People can now afford housing because of low interest rates," said one developer, who two years ago employed 15 people and now has 200 on his payroll.
"The boom is there."
Construction is not the only sector that's booming in Kenya.
The east African country raked in more than $870 million from tourism in 2006 -- catapulting the industry in front of horticulture and tea as its biggest foreign currency earner -- and expects revenue to top $1 billion this year.
Manufacturing which accounts for about one-tenth of gross domestic product also chalked up gains, growing by 6.9 percent last year, while agriculture -- representing a quarter of GDP -- expanded by 5.4 percent.
Kenya has been on the path to economic recovery since President Mwai Kibaki's government came to power in 2002 and growth was just 0.6 percent.
The government will be keen to capitalise on Kenya's improved economic performance as it seeks re-election this year, boosted by the central bank's projection of 8 percent growth by 2008, rising from at least 6 percent this year.
— Reuters
The smell of fresh cement thickens the air as builders in dust-smeared T-shirts hoist bricks up the side of an unfinished Nairobi apartment block.
Kenyans need only look at the rash of properties transforming the capital's skyline for proof of the country's economic resurgence in recent years.
"There's more demand than we can meet. People can now afford housing because of low interest rates," said one developer, who two years ago employed 15 people and now has 200 on his payroll.
"The boom is there."
Construction is not the only sector that's booming in Kenya.
The east African country raked in more than $870 million from tourism in 2006 -- catapulting the industry in front of horticulture and tea as its biggest foreign currency earner -- and expects revenue to top $1 billion this year.
Manufacturing which accounts for about one-tenth of gross domestic product also chalked up gains, growing by 6.9 percent last year, while agriculture -- representing a quarter of GDP -- expanded by 5.4 percent.
Kenya has been on the path to economic recovery since President Mwai Kibaki's government came to power in 2002 and growth was just 0.6 percent.
The government will be keen to capitalise on Kenya's improved economic performance as it seeks re-election this year, boosted by the central bank's projection of 8 percent growth by 2008, rising from at least 6 percent this year.
— Reuters