Don't you know cows refuse? Ha ha...i guess the weather is a great determinant here.

Kenya seeks closer ties with Ethiopia in three-day trade mission.

The Ministry of East African affairs, Commerce and Tourism has led a delegation including the Kenya Association of Manufacturers for a three day trade mission to Ethiopia. The delegation comprises over 40 senior government officials and captains of industry who plan to establish closer ties between the two countries. This is the first visit since the two countries signed a Special Status Agreement (SSA) was signed in 2012, which allowed Kenyan businesses to start businesses in Ethiopia. Several strategic industrial areas will be represented in the trip including food and beverage, metals, building and construction and paper. Ethiopia has consistently insisted that it would maintain control on some key sectors specifically telecommunications, power, finance and logistics with the aim of protecting its citizens against exploitation. Being one of the most populous nations in Africa with a population of 90m people, Ethiopia has despite the challenges managed to sustained double digit economic growth over the last decade, placing it among the strongest performing economies in Sub-Sahara Africa and one of the countries that are making good progress in reducing poverty levels. (The Standard, Standard Investment Bank)

Kenya’s Rotich Says Very Little to No Room for Further Rate Cuts

Kenya may not have any room left to cut interest rates further this year as the inflation outlook for East Africa’s biggest economy detoriorates, Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich said.

The Monetary Policy Committee, led by central bank Governor Njuguna Ndung’u, will review the benchmark interest rate again in September and November, after leaving it unchanged at 8.5 percent this month. Kenya has cut the rate by 9.5 percentage points since the easing cycle began last year.

“There is very little room if any left for more monetary easing because inflation is picking up,” Rotich said in an interview today in the capital, Nairobi. “Inflation could accelerate, but remain within our target.”

Annual inflation accelerated to 4.9 percent in June from 4.1 percent in May, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, staying within the government’s target of 2.5 percentage points above or below 5 percent. The statistics office is expected to release July inflation data tomorrow.


New taxes may fan inflation, according to Deloitte. Kenya introduced a railway development levy of 1.5 percent on all imported goods from July 1, while lawmakers are debating a bill in which the government wants to scrap exemptions of the 16 percent Value Added Tax on some processed products.

Rotich said the shilling is expected to stablize at about 85 per dollar “as long as fundamentals such as inflation are in order.” The shilling is Africa’s second-worst performing currency this month, after Ghana’s cedi. The currency was trading unchanged at 87.30 per dollar by 2:14 p.m. in Nairobi, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Kenya’s plan to sell its first Eurobonds in September or October to raise $1 billion to fund infrastructure is moving forward, according to Rotich. “Global market conditions have not changed significantly and we expect they will still favour us when we sell this year,” he said.


Economic growth is expected to accelerate to 5.8 percent this year from 4.6 percent in 2012, according to Rotich. The country is the world’s biggest exporter of black tea and supplies a third of all of the flowers traded in Europe.

July inflation hits 6% - http://www.nation.co.ke/...0/-/cihs02/-/index.html

Bottomed out, now heading north. CBK is 9%. Above that level stocks begin to slid.

VAT bill on the way, volatile oil, current account deficit... Sovereign bond saving grace for now...

why water for western and nyanza?
why not ukambani and north EASTERN?