The Leading Economic Indicators for May 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 148.20 points in April 2014 to 149.70 points in May 2014. The overall rate of inflation increased from 6.41 per cent to 7.30 per cent during the same period. During the month of May, the Kenyan Shilling depreciated against most major currencies except 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 to 8.82 per cent in May 2014 from 8.80 per cent recorded in April 2014. The inter-bank rates increased to 7.77 per cent during the period. The Nairobi Securities Exchange share index (NSE 20) declined by 1.35 per cent from 4,949 points in April 2014 to 4,882 points in May 2014, while the total number of shares traded went up from 728 million to 854 million shares during the same period.
The total value of NSE shares traded increased substantially from KSh 15.8 billion to KSh 23.0 billion over the same period. Broad money supply (M3), a key indicator for monetary policy formulation, increased from KSh 2,100.6 billion in April 2014 to KSh 2,129.9 billion in May 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 to KSh 365.3 billion over the same period. Download report...