2015 Economic Survey a wake up call

The Economic Survey 2015 released last week by Devolution and Planning Cabinet Secretary Ann Waiguru leaves a lot to be desired.

According to the survey, Kenya’s economy grew at 5.3 per cent last year compared to 5.7 per cent in 2013.  The cost of living rose from 5.7 per cent to 6.9 per cent in the same period. The survey also revealed that inflation remained the same at 8.5 per cent.

Notably, Jubilee manifesto promises to grow the country’s economy at between 7-10 per cent in the first two years and to pursue exchange rate stability and monetary policy that will lower interest rates.

Needless to mention, the Kenyan shilling is also performing dismally against the US dollar and other currencies. And despite the Jubilee administration promise to create one million jobs annually, it was only able to create 800,000 jobs last year, majority of them in the informal sector. Generally, efforts to resuscitate the economy have not borne much fruit even as the Jubilee administration heads to the midpoint of its reign.

While I laud the national government effort to instil fiscal discipline in its expenditure and boost strategic investment in infrastructure, there is unprecedented urgency for it to implement both macro-economic and micro-economic reforms to grow the economy in real terms.

 As the same time, the Government must walk the talk on its fight against corruption as well tame the ballooning public wage bill. This should happen at both the county and national level. The current economic climate has left millions of Kenyans wallowing in poverty, especially due to astronomically high cost of living, and the Government must move with speed to turn the situation around.