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, tour-ism and transport.
Consumer Price Index (CPI) decreased from 195.05 points in May 2018 to 193.31 points in June 2018. The overall rate of in-flation rose from 3.95 per cent to 4.28 per cent during the same period. In June 2018, the Kenyan Shilling appreciated against the major trading currencies except for the US Dollar and the Japanese Yen. The average yield rate for the 91-day Treasury bills, which is a benchmark for the general trend of interest rates decreased slightly from 7.96 per cent in May 2018 to 7.23 per cent in June 2018, while the inter-bank rate rose from 4.93 per cent in May 2018 to 5.03 per cent in June 2018.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) 20 share index decreased from 3,333 points in May 2018 to 3,286 points in June 2018, while the total number of shares traded dropped from 677 million shares to 453 million shares during the same period. The total value of NSE shares traded decreased from KSh 18.38 billion in May 2018 to KSh 13.69 billion in June 2018.
Broad money supply (M3), a key indicator for monetary policy formulation, increased from KSh 3,122.37 bil-lion in May 2018 to KSh 3,242.94 billion in June 2018. Gross Foreign Exchange Reserves increased from KSh 1,210.28 billion in May 2018 to KSh 1,221.83 billion in June 2018. Net Foreign Exchange Reserves in-creased from KSh 726.45 billion in May 2018 to KSh 760.51 billion in June 2018.[wpdm_package id=4956 template=”link-template-calltoaction3.php”]