Kenya recorded +6.3% GDP growth in 2018 (the highest figure since 2010) driven by a wide range of sectors such as agriculture, transport, telecoms, trade, education and manufacturing. This range of growth drivers is also helping to stabilize the momentum even in a year where one driver is missing. It explains why the average expansion was that high during the last 10 years (+5.9%). Overall, the main reason for the growth acceleration in 2018 from the +4.9% observed in 2017 (the lowest figure since 2012) was better crops since agriculture grew by +6.2% and added +1.5pp to GDP growth in 2018, after just +0.5pp in 2017. Manufacturing production was the other area that recovered in 2018 (an impact of political normalization) with an increase by +4.2% (the highest since 2012) after a mere +1.9% in 2017. Financing is also a key issue, since Kenya is preparing to issue about USD2.5bn of Eurobonds, partly to secure the refinancing of maturing debt. Fiscal consolidation is also a precondition to limit new financing needs (public debt was 56% of GDP in 2018) and avoid financing shocks.
