The Leading Economic Indicators 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 175.18 points in December 2016 to 176.93 points in January 2017. The overall rate of inflation rose from 6.35 per cent to 6.99 per cent during the same period. In January, 2017 the Kenyan Shilling depreciated against all currencies except for the Tanzanian shilling.
The average yield rate for the 91-day Treasury bills, which is a benchmark for the general trend of interest rates, increased from 8.44 per cent in December 2016 to 8.62 per cent in January 2017 while the inter-bank rate rose to 7.70 in January 2016 from 5.55 per cent in December 2016.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) 20 share index decreased from 3,186 points in December 2016 to 2,794 points in January 2017, while the total number of shares traded increased significantly from 289 million shares to 572 million shares during the same period. The total value of NSE shares traded rose from KSh 7.11 billion in December 2016 to KSh 12.05 billion in January 2017.
Broad money supply (M3), a key indicator for monetary policy formulation expanded from KSh 2,733.53 billion in December 2016 to KSh 2,738.21 billion in January 2017.Gross Foreign Exchange Reserves declined from KSh 1,032.13 billion in November 2016 to KSh 962.03 billion in December 2016. Net Foreign Exchange Reserves decreased from KSh 563.96 billion in November 2016 to KSh 497.10 billion in December 2016.