NAIROBI, KENYA — Kenya’s national economic growth experienced a slowdown over the past year, according to the 2025 Economic Survey by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS). The growth rate decreased from 5.7 percent, equivalent to Sh16.2 trillion in 2023, to 4.7 percent, amounting to Sh15 trillion in 2024.
Despite the overall deceleration, several sectors demonstrated positive growth, including agriculture, forestry, and fishing (4.6 percent), financial and insurance activities (7.6 percent), transport and storage (4.4 percent), and real estate (5.3 percent).
The KNBS survey revealed that a total of 782,300 new jobs were created in the economy in 2024, a slight decrease compared to the 848,200 jobs added in 2023. The modern sector accounted for 78,600 of the new jobs in 2024.
The informal sector saw a reduction in new job creation, generating 703,700 new positions compared to 720,900 in the previous year. Nevertheless, the informal sector remained the primary source of employment, with 17.4 million employees, representing 83.6 percent of the total workforce, excluding small-scale agriculture. Formal employment accounted for a smaller share, with 3.4 million employees or 16.4 percent of the job market.
National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi, during the report’s launch, attributed the economic slowdown to factors such as constrained fiscal space, high interest rates, socio-economic disruptions related to the Gen-Z protests of June the previous year, and the impact of inconsistent weather patterns.
“These extreme weather conditions have negatively impacted our economic growth, and of course, the trade wars (among developed countries), which are affecting global trade,” Mbadi stated.
KNBS data indicated an increase in Gross National Disposable Income to Sh16.9 trillion in 2024 from Sh15.75 trillion in 2023, while GDP per capita rose from Sh291,770 in 2023 to Sh309,460 in 2024. Furthermore, total employment in the modern and informal sectors (excluding small-scale agriculture) increased from 20 million in 2023 to 20.8 million in 2024.
Both the private and public sectors experienced growth in their annual wage bills, with the private sector accounting for the majority, spending approximately Sh2.11 trillion on salaries, compared to the public sector’s Sh881.4 billion. The private sector areas with the highest employment numbers were manufacturing (347,294) and agriculture, forestry, and fishing (308,865), representing 15.9 percent and 14.1 percent, respectively.
“The nominal wage bill grew by 7.2 per cent to Sh3 trillion in 2024. The private sector wage bill expanded by 7.7 per cent to Sh2.1 trillion in 2024, while the public sector wage bill increased by 5.8 per cent to Sh881.4 billion in 2024, accounting for 29.4 per cent of the total wage payments in 2024,” the report detailed.
Interestingly, despite the dip in economic growth, KNBS data also showed a decrease in the inflation rate, from 7.7 percent in 2022 and 2023 to 4.5 percent in 2024.
“This is the lowest that we have achieved, in the last 5 years, and in fact, within the year, in November, that is when we noticed that, our inflation rate, went down to 2.7, again, that happened to be the lowest, in as many years, as we are able to record,” KNBS Director General Macdonald Obudho noted.
President William Ruto has attributed Kenya’s economic trajectory to the Bottom Up Economic Transformation Agenda, citing the decline in inflation and increased production in key agricultural sectors.
The economic survey’s release follows Labour Day, during which President Ruto expressed confidence in his administration’s economic strategies. However, the report also highlights challenges in sectors like construction, which saw a decline, and the continued struggle to implement promised public sector pay hikes.
Regionally, Kenya’s economic growth of 4.7 percent places it alongside the Democratic Republic of Congo, lower than Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda within the East African Community.
The report also indicated a rise in Kenya’s exports, from Sh1 trillion in 2023 to Sh1.1 trillion in 2024, largely due to increased re-exports. Despite the improved overall performance of the agriculture sector, the production of maize, a staple food, decreased.
