The Leading Economic Indicators for the month of April 2015 highlights trends in Consumer Price Indices (CPI) and inflation, interest rates, exchange rates, international trade, agriculture, energy, manufacturing, building and construction, tourism and transport.
Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased from 155.86 points in March 2015 to 158.70 points in April 2015. The overall rate of inflation expanded from 6.31 per cent to 7.08 per cent during the same period. In April 2015, the Kenyan Shilling depreciated against all the major currencies except for the Ugandan shilling.
The average yield rate for the 91-day Treasury bills, which is a benchmark for the general trend of interest rates, declined to 8.42 per cent in April 2015. The inter-bank rates rose to 8.93 per cent during the period.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange 20 share index decreased from 5,346 points in March 2015 to 5,091 points in April 2015, while the total number of shares traded dropped from 614 million to 488 million shares during the same period. The total value of NSE shares traded contracted from KSh 20.52 billion to KSh 14.64 billion over the same period. Broad money supply (M3), a key indicator for monetary policy formulation expanded from KSh 2,399.02 billion in March 2015 to KSh 2,448.96 billion in April 2015. Gross Foreign Exchange Reserves increased from KSh 906.04 billion in March 2015 to KSh 923.84 billion in April 2015. Net Foreign Exchange Reserves expanded from KSh 463.84 billion to KSh 468.07 billion over the same period.