After experiencing a dip in private sector activity due to the Omicron wave of the coronavirus pandemic in January, Kenya is currently seeing an uptick in the volume of business done as the rate of new infections fall in the country. The Purchasing Managers Index reading which monitors declines and improvement in business conditions rose slightly above neutral to 52.9 from its January low of 47.6 in January.
The report states that domestic demand strongly recovered in February, driven mainly by the increased customer number in the light of the reduced COVID19 infections and spread. Businesses have slowly started to head back to pre-pandemic numbers but the recovery was stalled between December and January when the Omicron variant of Covid threatened to impede the progress in many African countries.
Manufacturing and agriculture firms experienced the strongest upturns in output during February. On the flip side, retail and wholesale was the only sector to see their activities decline.
Kenya also saw an increase in new businesses at a rate not seen since October 2020. A previous report by Standard Chartered projected that Kenyan exports will grow by KSh1.1 trillion or $10.2 billion by 2030.
The research, titled ‘Future of Trade 2030: Trends and Markets to Watch’, state that the rise in exports will be driven by among others, output from the manufacturing sector, agriculture and food, textile and apparel, and metal and minerals.
The report, commissioned by Standard Chartered and prepared by PwC, is based on an analysis of historical trade data and projections until 2030, as well as insights from a survey of more than 500 C-suite and senior leaders in global companies.