- Economy Overview: A serious underlying economic problem is Kenya's 3.8% annual population growth rate—one of the highest in the world. In the meantime, GDP growth in the near term has kept slightly ahead of population—annually averaging 5.2% in the 1986-88 period. Undependable weather conditions and a shortage of arable land hamper long-term growth in agriculture, the leading economic sector.
GDP: $8.5 billion, per capita $360; real growth rate 4.9% (1989 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 8.3% (1988)
Unemployment rate: NA%, but there is a high level of unemployment and underemployment
Budget: revenues $2.3 billion; expenditures $2.6 billion, including capital expenditures of $0.71 billion (FY87)
Exports: $1.0 billion (f.o.b., 1988); commodities—coffee 20%, tea 18%, manufactures 15%, petroleum products 10% (1987); partners—Western Europe 45%, Africa 22%, Far East 10%, US 4%, Middle East 3% (1987)
Imports: $1.8 billion (f.o.b., 1988); commodities—machinery and transportation equipment 36%, raw materials 33%, fuels and lubricants 20%, food and consumer goods 11% (1987); partners—Western Europe 49%, Far East 20%, Middle East 19%, US 7% (1987)
External debt: $6.2 billion (December 1989 est.)
Industrial production: growth rate 4.8% (1987 est.)
Electricity: 587,000 kW capacity; 2,250 million kWh produced, 90 kWh per capita (1989)