Steadily accelerating economic growth in Kenya is translating into jobs – and driving demand for logistics services to handle exports and imports. “Kenya’s economy has continued to perform well, with real GDP growth accelerating to 6% in the first half of 2018, from 4.9% in 2017,” said Benedict Clements, the leader of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff team which visited Kenya in December 2018 The acceleration of growth is being driven by a strong recovery in agriculture due to improved weather conditions, resilient performance of services sectors, and sustained confidence in the economy, according to Clements. Agricultural products are central to Kenya’s export industry, with labourintensive flowers and tea being the most important. Other exports include textiles, coffee, tobacco, iron and steel products, petroleum products and cement. Kenya’s main export partners are the UK, Netherlands, Uganda, Tanzania, United States and Pakistan. Trading Economics figures show that economic growth is creating jobs – with unemployment dropping from 11.5% at the end of 2018 to 10% by 2020. GDP is expected to grow by 6%. In 2018 Kenya ranked 61st in the World Bank ease of doing business rating, up from 80th in 2017. In contrast, South Africa is ranked 82 among 190 economies. According to the Kenyan port authority, the Port of Mombasa is edging closer towards attaining 48 hours’ turnaround time for bigger vessels. In 2018 the port set four successive productivity records. On Sunday November 11, 2018 a record was broken by container carrier MV Ever Diamond which recorded 1523 moves within an eight-hour shift. This broke a three-week-old record of 1 450 moves in an eight-hour shift on the MSC Maxine on her maiden voyage to Mombasa. The 9 411-TEU vessel is the largest to have docked in the port.
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