By Constant Munda,
Kenya has for the first time bought more than she sold to African countries in the half-year period, signaling continued dwindling competitiveness of her products on the continent.
Trade deficit in Africa — the gap between imports and exports — stood at Sh156 million, marking the first time Nairobi has run a deficit since the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) started to publicly keep trade records in 1999.
Data from Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) show total exports in six months through June dropped 1.96 percent to Sh107.55 billion compared with a year ago, higher than 0.99 percent in imports to Sh107.71 billion.
A higher growth in imports than exports, economists say, denies Kenya an opportunity to create more jobs because local firms lose out market to foreign factories and traders. Kenya has struggled to sustainably expand her exports to African countries since the turn of the decade, a further analysis of the official trade statistics indicates, sign factories in Nairobi have been losing their market share partly due to import substitution amid dwindling industrial competitiveness…Read more>>
