Overview: A serious underlying economic problem is Kenya's 4.2% annual population growth rate--one of the highest in the world, which if continued would lead to a doubling of population every 17 years. Meantime, GDP growth in the near-term has kept slightly ahead of population--about 5% in 1988 compared with 4.8% in 1987 and 5.6% in 1986. In 1989, GDP growth will be sustained through foreign and domestic borrowing, a prudent monetary policy, and domestic credit and structural reforms inspired by the IMF and World Bank. Undependable weather conditions and a shortage of arable land hamper long-term growth in agriculture, the leading economic sector.

GDP: $8.1 billion, per capita $370; real growth rate 4.8% (1987)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 5.2% (1987)

Unemployment rate: NA%, but there is a high level of unemployment and underemployment

Budget: revenues $2.3 billion; expenditures $2.6 billion, including capital expenditures of $0.71 billion (FY87)

Exports: $1.2 billion (f.o.b., 1987); @m5commodities--coffee 20%, tea 18%, manufactures 15%, petroleum products 10% (1987); @m5partners--Western Europe 45%, Africa 22%, Far East 10%, US 4%, Middle East 3% (1987)

Imports: $1.8 billion (c.i.f., 1987); @m5commodities--machinery and transportation equipment 36%, raw materials 33%, fuels and lubricants 20%, food and consumer goods 11% (1987); @m5partners--Western Europe 49%, Far East 20%, Middle East 19%, US 7% (1987)

External debt: $5.0 billion (December 1988)

Industrial production: growth rate 4.8% (1987 est.)

Electricity: 587,000 kW capacity; 2,147 million kWh produced, 90 kWh per capita (1988)

Industries: small-scale consumer goods (plastic, furniture, batteries, textiles, soap, cigarettes, flour), agricultural processing, oil refining, cement, tourism

Agriculture: main cash crops--coffee, tea, sisal, pyrethrum (insecticide made from chrysanthemums), cotton, livestock; food crops--corn, wheat, sugarcane, rice, cassava; largely self-sufficient in food; an illegal producer of cannabis; some international drug trade trafficking

Aid: NA

Currency: Kenyan shilling (plural--shillings); 1 Kenyan shilling (KSh) = 100 cents

Exchange rates: Kenyan shillings (KSh) per US$1--18.739 (January 1989), 17.747 (1988), 16.454 (1987), 16.226 (1986), 16.432 (1985)

Fiscal year: 1 July-30 June

NOTE: The information regarding Kenya on this page is re-published from the 1989 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Kenya Economy 1989 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Kenya Economy 1989 should be addressed to the CIA.