Kenya Economic Update, December 2011 : Navigating the Storm, Delivering the Promise with a Special Focus on Kenya's Momentous Devolution
Kenya is entering a decisive year. Three main developments will make 2012 extraordinary. First, Kenya will hold national elections for the first time since the traumatic post-election violence of 2007-08, which ended Kenya's high growth moment...
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Format: | Report |
Language: | English en_US |
Published: |
World Bank, Nairobi
2017
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Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/798781468057855865/Kenya-economic-update-navigating-the-storm-delivering-the-promise-with-a-special-focus-on-Kenyas-momentous-devolution http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26664 |
Summary: | Kenya is entering a decisive year. Three
main developments will make 2012 extraordinary. First, Kenya
will hold national elections for the first time since the
traumatic post-election violence of 2007-08, which ended
Kenya's high growth momentum abruptly. Second,
Kenya's economy will need to navigate through a severe
economic storm, which could well become a hurricane,
especially if Europe enters into a recession. Third, the
country will implement its most ambitious governance reforms
ever, namely the devolution of responsibility to forty-seven
new counties. Kenya's policy makers will need to
display tremendous skill and steadfast leadership in order
to balance the need for fiscal prudence, with ensuring that
resource flows to new local governments are sufficient to
meet their needs. High expectations of the promise of
devolution need to be met by equally high quality planning
and execution of its delivery. Kenya will enter 2012 from a
weaker-than expected economic position. Kenya's economy
is navigating rough economic waters, where existing
structural weaknesses have been compounded by short-term
shocks. The most visible sign of Kenya's economic
challenge is the depreciating shilling, which reached an all
time low against the US Dollar in October 2011. The elements
behind this situation are high international food and fuel
prices, the drought compounded by conflict in the horn of
Africa, the Euro crisis, widening fiscal and current account
deficits, and major inefficiencies in Kenya's
agriculture sector. The recent developments are also
undermining one of Kenya's main strengths over the last
decade: the credibility and predictability of its
macroeconomic policies. |
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