The Leading Economic Indicators for June 2014 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 149.70 points in May 2014 to 149.91 points in June 2014. The overall rate of inflation went up from 7.30 per cent to 7.39 per cent during the same period. During the month of June, the Kenyan Shilling appreciated against the Euro, South African Rand, Tanzanian and Ugandan Shilling while it depreciated against the US Dollar, Sterling Pound and the Japanese Yen shilling.
The average yield rate for the 91-day Treasury bills, which is a benchmark for the general trend of interest rates, increased to 9.81 per cent in June 2014 from 8.82 per cent in May 2014. The inter-bank rates fell to 6.95 per cent during the period. The Nairobi Securities Exchange 20 share index rose from 4,882 points in May 2014 to 4,885 points in June 2014, while the total number of shares traded decreased from 854 million to 731 million shares during the same period. The total value of NSE shares traded decreased substantially from KSh 23.0 billion to KSh 18.2 billion over the same period. Broad money supply (M3), a key indicator for monetary policy formulation expanded from KSh 2,129.9 billion in May 2014 to KSh 2,329.0 billion in June 2014. Gross Foreign Exchange Reserves contracted from KSh 754.8 billion in April 2014 to KSh 731.6 billion in May 2014 while Net Foreign Exchange Reserves declined from Ksh 393.5 to Ksh 365.3 billion over the same period. Download full report…