Browsing: Job creation in Kenya

• Business confidence slips to lowest since February
• Input prices rise mildly after back-to-back declines
• Steepest drops in activity and new work for seven months

Kenya’s business activity dips amid tax revolt

Kenya’s business activities fell sharply in June amid reports of widespread economic challenges and a negative impact on sales from protests and policy uncertainty, the Standard Bank’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for June indicates. New business intakes dropped at the fastest rate since November last year, leading to a drop in business confidence and weaker job creation.

Although Kenyan firms also saw a renewed increase in their input costs in June, the rate of inflation was mild and had little impact on selling charges.

The survey by Stanbic Bank Kenya, compiled by S&P Global was conducted between June12 and June 26, with headline figure derived from the survey reading at 47.2 in June. Readings above 50.0 signal an improvement …

• • Output rises at the sharpest rate in 20 months.
  • New order volumes strengthen.
  • Input costs fall for the second month in a row.

  Kenya recorded an improvement in private sector business conditions during May, as falling cost burdens and rising new business contributed to a solid expansion in activity.

  The Latest Stanbic Bank Kenya Purchasing Managers’ Index indicates that activity’s upturn was the sharpest in 20 months, as was input buying growth.

  Job creation continued at a mild pace even as reductions in fuel prices and import costs led to a further drop in overall input prices in May, after the first decrease in nearly four years during April.

  Selling prices started to rise again, albeit slowly. The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI). Readings above 50.0 signal improved business conditions in the previous month, while readings below 50.0 show a deterioration.

  The latest headline PMI reading of 51.8 marked the index’s