Browsing: Economic recovery

Governments can play a crucial role in enhancing agricultural productivity in Africa for economic growth. Individual nations can accomplish this by establishing policy environments to promote agricultural investment, including providing tax incentives and subsidies to producers. Governments can also prioritize agricultural development in their national budgets by allocating a more significant proportion of their resources to the sector.…

Côte d’Ivoire’s economy remains on a favourable trajectory. The economy needs bolstering to expedite the structural change of its economy as envisioned by the new 2030 plan. To achieve this, the nation needs to raise its investments in new sectors with considerable potential for wealth generation and improvement in quality of life. These sectors would enable the inclusion and realisation of benefits for women and the most disadvantaged populations in society, especially those residing in the most isolated rural areas.…

AfCFTA’s successful implementation can boost trade and promote Africa’s economic recovery and growth. The AfCFTA is the world’s most extensive free trade area in terms of size and number of nations, with a combined GDP of around $3.4 trillion.
Increased integration would improve incomes, generate employment, stimulate investment, and make establishing regional supply chains easier. In comparison to Africa’s external trade, intra-African trade remains tiny. In 2020, just 18 per cent of exports went to other African nations.…

Some worry that monetary policy is still excessively accommodating, given that rate hikes have not matched inflation. Policy cooperation may be beneficial. Fiscal consolidation and a mix of rate rises and currency depreciation may play a role in nations where policy is overly permissive.

The shaky recovery in Sub-Saharan Africa, coupled with domestic demand constraints, has not significantly fueled inflation so far. However, in the coming months, governments and policymakers must carefully monitor and prioritise tackling the rising inflation in Africa.…

Zambia has dealt with the legacy of years of economic mismanagement, with an especially inefficient public investment drive.  Zambia has been in debt distress. Therefore, the country needed a deep and comprehensive debt treatment to place public debt on a sustainable path.…

• The banking sector in Kenya was stable and resilient in the third quarter of 2021
• The Quarterly Economic Review for the period ending 30th September 2021 indicates that the sector’s total assets increased by 2.4% to KSh 5.8 trillion in September 2021, from KSh 5.7 trillion in June 2021
• Loans and advances accounted for 54.8% of total assets in the third quarter of 2021, a 0.1% point increase from 54.7% of total assets in the second quarter

Kenya’s banking sector remained stable in the third quarter of 2021, said freshly released data by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).

In its Quarterly Economic Review for the period ending 30th September 2021, CBK indicates that the sector’s total assets increased by 2.4% to KSh 5.8 trillion (US$ 51 billion) in September 2021, from KSh 5.7 trillion (US$ 50 billion) in June 2021.

CBK said the increase was mainly because of a …

Kenya’s agriculture sector grew by 5.1 percent in 2020, thereby preventing a contraction of the economy, amid the coronavirus pandemic, which ravaged a majority of other sectors.

Data from Deloitte’s East Africa Economies Report 2021 indicates that the sector remains fundamentally important to the Kenyan economy, contributing about 33 percent of the GDP and 56 percent of the employment, both formally and informally.

The report paints mixed performance in the sector in 2020, for instance, as of May 2020, Kenya’s Agricultural sector’s outlook was grim due to the locust swarm infestation affecting domestic agricultural production.

However, as of Q4 2020, the sector reflected a revamped outlook owing to favourable rains and success in beating back a second wave of desert locusts.

“As such, the sector is estimated to have posted a 5.1 percent growth in 2020, emerging as the silver lining sector,” the report says.

Exports

The report also shows …

The Kenya Association of Manufacturers urged the government of Kenya to urgently address the way to economic recovery following the immense effects of the pandemic.

This was said during the launch of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) 2021 Manufacturing Priority Agenda (MPA), themed “From surviving COVID-19 to thriving: Manufacturing sector rebound for the sustained job and investment growth”.

Speaking during the Agenda launch, Mr Mucai Kunyiha, the KAM chair said that the economic recovery highly depends on the goodwill and full commitment from the government.

He explained that “Efforts to enhance our productivity are hampered by the increasing cost of doing business and low competitiveness. Some of the issues that contribute to this are regulatory overreach high cost of energy, transport, and logistics costs. To resolve these headwinds, it is paramount that the government and its agencies strongly commit and demonstrate goodwill to securing the future of our country’s …