Month: March 2015

The Leading Economic Indicators for the month of February 2015 highlights trends in Consumer Price Indices (CPI) and inflation, interest rates, exchange rates, international trade, agriculture, energy, manufacturing, building and construction, tourism and transport.

Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased from 153.43 points in January 2014 to 154.14 points in February 2015. The overall rate of inflation expanded from 5.53 per cent to 5.61 per cent during the same period. In February 2015, the Kenyan Shilling depreciated against the US dollar while appreciating against the other major currencies.
The average yield rate for the 91-day Treasury bills, which is a benchmark for the general trend of interest rates, rmaintained a value of 8.59 per cent in February 2015. The inter-bank rates fell to 6.91 per cent during the period. The Nairobi Securities Exchange 20 share index increased from 5,212 points in January 2014 to 5,491 points in February 2015, while the total number of shares traded increased from 414 million to 593 million shares during the same period. The total value of NSE shares traded expanded from KSh 9.72 billion to KSh 16.11 billion over the same period. Broad money supply (M3), a key indicator for monetary policy formulation expanded from KSh 2,351.02 billion in January 2015 to KSh 2,439.98 billion in February 2015. Gross Foreign Exchange Reserves increased from KSh 890.55 billion in January 2015 to KSh 910.92 billion in February 2015. Net Foreign Exchange Reserves went up from KSh 474.00 billion to KSh 488.50 billion over the same period. Download Leading Economic Indicators February 2015…

Kenya National Bureau of Statistics hereby releases Consumer Price Indices (CPI) and inflation rates for March, 2015. These numbers have been generated using data collected during the second and third weeks of the month under review. The prices were obtained from selected retail outlets in 25 data collection zones located in 13 urban centers.

CPI increased by 1.12 per cent from 154.14 in February 2015 to 155.86 in March 2015. The overall inflation rate stood at 6.31 per cent in March 2015. Download CPI and Inflation Rates for March 2015

Kenya National Bureau of Statistics hereby releases the Producer Price Index (PPI) for the February quarter of 2015. Producer Price Index measures the gross changes in the trading price of products on the domestic and the non-domestic markets, at all stages of processing. The price changes are measured from the perspective of the producer. The producer prices are collected as at 15th February, 15th May, 15th August and 15th November of the year. These dates corresponds to the first, second, third and fourth quarters respectively. The Kenya Petroleum Refineries Limited (KPRL) stopped operations in September 2013. As such, the weights have been re-adjusted accordingly.

The main contributors in the first quarter increases were manufacture of food products, manufacture of beverages and manufacture of rubber and plastics products. Under manufacture of food products the producer prices of tea and dairy products had the highest increase while under furniture increase in prices of mattresses caused the index to go up. Although the index under manufacture of food increased over the three months, prices of wheat flour, maize flour and sugar declined during the period under review. Over the three months period, electricity decreased by 2.09 per cent while manufacture of lubricating petroleum oils declined by 13.6 per cent. Download Producer Price Index First Quarter 2015

The Kenya National Housing Survey (KNHS) was carried out in 2012/2013 in 44 Counties of the Republic of Kenya.
It was undertaken through the NASSEP (V) sampling frame. The survey targeted different players in the housing sector including renters and owner occupiers, housing financiers, home builders/developers, housing regulators and housing professionals. The key objective for the survey was to improve the base of housing statistics and information knowledge. Some of the key findings include;
• Renting households spend more than 30% of their income on rent monthly. This percentage increases to 47% when housing related utilities are included.
• Over 90% of the financial institutions interviewed indicated that they did not have specific products geared towards savings for mortgage.
• Average banks mortgage interest rates in December 2010 and December 2011 stood at 14.36 per cent and 16.36 per cent respectively
• Housing developers quoted, access to affordable land (45.9%), high returns on investment (43.7%), and prospective future returns on investment (41.4%) as the key factors in determining where to develop.
Based on the survey findings, a one stop shop system is proposed where all approving bodies will sit together to analyze development applications received and give feedback on the applications within a reasonable time.
The survey collected massive data on various aspects of housing which was not analyzed for this basic report; we therefore recommend that the government prepares analytical reports from this data. This will provide useful information to both public and private sectors players in the housing sector.
This report is structured into eight chapters. Chapter one provides the background of the 2012/2013 KNHS.
Chapter two presents the survey methodology while chapter three summarizes the findings of the renters and owner occupier characteristics.
Chapter four gives information of the built environment professionals and selected aspects of housing. Chapter five presents details on financing of housing development;
Chapter six is on housing developers for selected aspects of housing;
Chapter seven is on institutional and regulatory framework while chapter eight gives the key survey findings, conclusion and recommendations. Download report…

Download the questionnaires, technical documents and reports that describe the survey process and the key results for this study.

Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased from 152.51 points in December 2014 to 153.43 points in January 2015. The overall rate of inflation declined from 6.02 per cent to 5.53 per cent during the same period. In January 2015, the Kenyan Shilling depreciated against the US dollar and the Japanese Yen while appreciating against the other major currencies.
The average yield rate for the 91-day Treasury bills, which is a benchmark for the general trend of interest rates, rose to 8.59 per cent in January 2015 from 8.50 per cent in December 2014. The inter-bank rates rose to 7.24 per cent during the period. The Nairobi Securities Exchange 20 share index increased from 5,113 points in December 2014 to 5,212 points in January 2015, while the total number of shares traded declined from 900 million to 414 million shares during the same period. The total value of NSE shares traded contracted from KSh 31.58 billion to KSh 9.72 billion over the same period. Broad money supply (M3), a key indicator for monetary policy formulation expanded from KSh 2,329.98 billion in December 2014 to KSh 2,350.80 billion in January 2015. Gross Foreign Exchange Reserves on the other hand, contracted from KSh 893.0 billion in December 2014 to KSh 890.6 billion in January 2015. Net Foreign Exchange Reserves decreased from KSh 481.5 billion to KSh 474.0 billion over the same period. Download Leading Economic Indicators January 2015