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- 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).
-
- Industries: small-scale consumer goods (plastic, furniture,
- batteries, textiles, soap, cigarettes, flour), agricultural
- processing, oil refining, cement, tourism.
-
- Agriculture: most important sector, accounting for 30% of
- GDP, about 80% of the work force, and over 50% of exports;
- cash crops--coffee, tea, sisal, pineapple; food products--corn,
- wheat, sugarcane, fruit, vegetables, dairy products; food
- output not keeping pace with population growth.
-
- Illicit drugs: illicit producer of cannabis used mostly for domestic
- consumption; widespread cultivation of cannabis and qat on small
- plots; transit country for heroin and methaqualone en route from
- Southwest Asia to West Africa, Western Europe, and the US.
-
- Aid: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-88), $771 million;
- Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments
- (1970-87), $6.0 billion; OPEC bilateral aid (1979-89), $74 million;
- Communist countries (1970-88), $83 million.
-
- Currency: Kenyan shilling (plural--shillings); 1 Kenyan
- shilling (KSh) = 100 cents.
-
- Exchange rates: Kenyan shillings (KSh) per US$1--21.749
- (December 1989), 20.572 (1989), 17.747 (1988), 16.454 (1987),
- 16.226 (1986), 16.432 (1985).
-
- Fiscal year: 1 July-30 June.
-