East Africa Economic Report

 THE ECONOMY of east Africa  grew by about 5.9 per cent in 2013.And this year, it is projected to grow by 6.2 per cent, say experts.   The region has largely enjoyed a robust growth in the upwards of 5 per cent over the last decade. All countries in the region have been growing robustly except Kenya, the giant economy in the region. However, since Kenya is also joining in the club, growth in the block this year could even be higher than projected. Tanzania is still the high flyer with a projected growth of 7.2 this year. Economists have always said that the average growth rate would be higher if Kenya was growing at its potential.   Perhaps the time has finally arrived for Kenya to drive growth in the region.   Kenya’s economy is well diversified and resilient. What it lacked was the robustness of Tanzania and Rwanda.   However, her sluggish growth is a temporary matter arising from economic shocks since 2008. Before then, the economy had shrugge...

THE KENYAN ECONOMY has entered the middle income range we can report. According to various sources, the economy last year grew by 5.0 per cent. Consequently Per capita income has risen to US$1040.55 from US$991 last year. The entry level into the group according to World Bank is $1025 and Kenya’s GDP per capita has reached $1041, above the cut-off level, catapulting the country to lower middle income country. Kenya’s entry into middle income level has been long in coming. The country has enjoyed relative robust growth for much of the 2003-2013 decade. According to the World Bank’s data, Kenya ‘s GDP per capita grew 248 per cent between  2000 and 2012 rising from US$399 in 2000 to $991 in 2012.     The growth of Kenya's  GDP per capita was also ahead of her neighbours in east Africa in the eight years for which  data was available. Her posted a  207 per cent  growth between 2004 and...

Port of Dar-Es-Salaam: A bottleneck on Central Corridor  POOR TRANSPORT infrastructure in East Africa  stymies growth in East Africa. The region is aware of that bottleneck and  has drawn plans to develop the necessary infrastructure. However, funding is  a major hurdle. This article looks at the potential  benefits that could be unleashed by developing  transport infrastructure. We call on East Africa governments to  borrow a leaf from Ethiopia's book. The country issued an infrastructure bond targeting Ethiopians in the diaspora to build the 6.000MW renaissance dam. We begin our analysis with the central corridor  The Central Corridor connects the port of Dar es Salaam to the inland regions of Tanzania and to Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Kivu province. This corridor comprises a network of roads and railways passing Lake Victoria to the south. Along this route, it also taps into East Africa's most establ...

  Launching trading of a new listing at NSE THE  NAIROBI SECURITIES  Exchange was the top African performer in 2013. The MSCI emerging Market index placed NSE’s dollar adjusted return at 43.58 per cent. Another analyst, the Africa Capital Group places NSE’s return at 43.70 per cent. Whatever the case, NSE posted a huge rate of return. The market is capitalised at US$2.3 billion and some of its blue-chip scripts are cross-listed in other bourses in east Africa. This is the largest market capitalisation in east Africa, consequently, the movement of its muscle is also felt in the regional bourses.  This year, it is expected to pull along those bourses as it surges forward. The other three bourses, namely, Dar-Es-salaam stock Exchange, the Uganda Securities exchange and the Rwanda stock exchange did not feature in the MSCI global Emerging Market index, being nascent markets. However, according to the ACG index, they are good performers in Africa with ret...