Kenya to rebase GDP. Base year changes from 2001 to 2009 Taking the cue from Nigeria?
Highlights:
"Kenya is set to achieve the key middle-income economic status next month following a government-led statistical review that is likely to increase the size of the country’s economy by a fifth to $50bn.
Benjamin Macharia Muchiri, senior manager at the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, said the gross domestic product for 2009, the new base year, was “about 20 per cent higher than previously estimated”. He added: “Preliminary results for other years between 2006 and 2011 show revised GDPs going up by between 15 to 25 per cent.”
The increase – expected to be announced in May, although 2014 quarterly figures will not be updated until September – would push Kenya’s GDP for 2009 to about $37bn. Applying the same jump to 2013 could put the country’s economy above $50bn. At that level, Kenya, a nation of more than 43m people, will enjoy a GDP per capita of more than $1,136, up from a current estimate of $943, and within the benchmark of $1,036 set by the World Bank for middle-income nations.
Kenya’s bureau of statistics, which is changing the base year for calculating GDP from 2001 to 2009, says the upward revision reflects previously uncaptured data that shows growth in the manufacturing, agricultural, transport and communication sectors.
The recalculations may still underestimate total GDP as 2009, the new base year, saw the country affected by drought that depressed agricultural output and household spending. The statistics bureau rejected 2008 as a possible replacement base year because of post-election violence that had a dramatic impact on the economy: growth fell to 1.5 per cent, down from 7 per cent the year before, and more than 1,100 people were killed."
http://www.ft.com/intl/c...abdc0.html#axzz2yQV0EPwMAll my friends are heathens, take it slow. Wait for them to ask you who you know. Please don't make any sudden moves.