Leading Economic Indicators January 2018

The Leading Economic Indicators highlights trends in Consumer Price Indices (CPI) and inflation, interest rates, exchange rates, international trade, agriculture, energy, manufacturing, building and construction, tour-ism and transport.
Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased from 183.05 points in December 2017 to 185.47 points in January 2018. The overall rate of inflation rose from 4.50 per cent to 4.83 per cent during the same period. In January 2018, the Kenyan Shilling depreciated against the major trading currencies except for the US Dollar, the Ugandan shilling and the Tanzanian shilling. The average yield rate for the 91-day Treasury bills, which is a benchmark for the general trend of interest rates increased from 8.01 per cent in December 2017 to 8.04 in January 2018, while the inter-bank rate dropped from 7.27 per cent in December 2017 to 6.21 per cent in January 2018.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) 20 share index increased from 3,711 points in December 2017 to 3,737 points in January 2018, while the total number of shares traded rose from 451 million shares to 862 mil-lion shares during the same period. The total value of NSE shares traded increased from KSh 11.87 billion in December 2017 to KSh 20.34 billion in January 2018.
Broad money supply (M3), a key indicator for monetary policy formulation, decreased from KSh 3,028.14 bil-lion in December 2017 to KSh 3,020.85 billion in January 2018. Gross Foreign Exchange Reserves increased from KSh 996.56 billion in December 2017 to KSh 1,000.19 billion in January 2018. Net Foreign Exchange Reserves increased from KSh 519.93 billion in December 2017 to KSh 541.63 billion in January 2018.[wpdm_package id=4743 template=”link-template-calltoaction3.php”]