The Kenyan economy grew at a slower pace of 4.7 percent in 2024, compared to 5.7 percent a year earlier, weighed down by a subdued performance in the agricultural sector and tight credit.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) released the Economic Survey 2025 on Tuesday, detailing how various sectors and jobs market performed.
Agriculture, which accounts for more than a fifth of the economy or gross domestic product (GDP), grew at a slower rate of 4.4 percent last year compared to 7.7 per cent growth in 2023 due to reduced maize production and exports of horticultural produce to the European market.
The country’s nominal GDP, or the value of all the goods and services produced in 2024, was Sh16.22 trillion, up from Sh15.03 trillion in the previous year.
New jobs
The economy generated 782,000 new jobs in the year to December last year, down seven percent from the 848,200 created in 2023.
KNBS director-general Macdonald Obudho said on Tuesday that 90 percent of the new jobs were concentrated in the informal sector, without giving specific figures.
Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi attributes the slow growth to constrained fiscal space, high interest rates, the Gen Z protests that almost shut down the economy for nearly three months, and the spillover effects of the four-year drought, pandemic and floods.
“This slowdown mirrors global trends where the world GDP growth reduced from 3.3 percent in 2023 to 3.2 percent in 2024,” Mr Mbadi said.
Mr Mbadi projects the economy to pick up this year, driven mainly by a robust services sector and improved agriculture thanks to good weather and the distribution of subsidised fertiliser.
