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) expanded from 169.76 points in June 2016 to 170.84 points in July 2016. The overall rate of inflation increased from 5.80 per cent to 6.39 per cent during the same period. In July, 2016 the Kenyan Shilling appreciated against the Sterling Pound, the Euro and the Ugandan shilling while depreciating against the US Dollar, the Japanese Yen, the South African Rand and the Tanzanian shilling.
The average yield rate for the 91-day Treasury bills, which is a benchmark for the general trend of interest rates, rose from 7.25 per cent in June 2016 to 7.41 per cent in July 2016 while the inter-bank rate rose to 5.50 in July 2016 from 4.87 per cent in June 2016.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) 20 share index contracted from 3,641 points in June 2016 to 3,489 points in July 2016, while the total number of shares traded decreased from 601 million shares to 544 million shares during the same period. The total value of NSE shares traded dropped from KSh 17.25 billion in June 2016 to KSh 13.61 billion in July 2016.
Broad money supply (M3), a key indicator for monetary policy formulation dropped from KSh 2,754.14 billion in June 2016 to KSh 2,705.19 billion in July 2016.Gross Foreign Exchange Reserves declined from KSh 1,055.01 billion in June 2016 to KSh 1,053.86 billion in July 2016. Net Foreign Exchange Reserves expanded from KSh 560.34 billion in June 2016 to KSh 563.12 billion in July 2016. Download Leading Economic Indicators July 2016