Business activities pick up to 5-month high in October

Boda Boda operators waiting for customers along Banda street within the CBD on Wednesday, September 1, 2021. [Samson Wire, Standard].

Business activities picked up for the first time in five months in October following the easing of Covid-19 containment measures.

This is according to the latest Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) released yesterday.

The PMI, a barometer of the health of the country’s private sector, showed increased output of goods and services and new businesses last month.

“New business volumes continued to rise, with Kenyan firms extending the current run of growth that began in May,” says the report that is jointly done by Stanbic Bank and IHS Markit, an information services company.

This, said the panellists, was due to greater customer spending as cash flow and economic conditions improved.

President Uhuru Kenyatta also lifted the dusk-to-dawn curfew last month, in what is likely to boost the operations of firms in tourism and hospitality.

The PMI survey showed an uptick in business activities last month with a reading of 51.4, up from 50.4 in September, the highest reading in five months.

“That said, the index signalled only a modest improvement in business conditions and one that was slower than the series long-run trend,” said the report.

At the height of the pandemic last year, the reading dipped to 37.5 in March from 49 recorded in February following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease in the country, which has disrupted global supply chains and brought the hospitality industry to its knees.

As the containment measures have been eased, economic output has improved, with some who had lost jobs finding their way back into the job market.

Last year, the size of the economy contracted by 0.3 per cent owing to a depressed output in hotel and accommodation, education, transport and storage.