Author: Muindi

Kenya’s private sector activity continued its upward trend and reached a new high attributed to increased demand and new hirings in August. The Markit Stanbic Bank Kenya Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 51.1 in August from 50.6 in July.  Readings above 50.0 signal an improvement in business conditions on the previous month, while readings below 50.0 show a deterioration. “The pace of the recovery in business conditions accelerated driven by higher levels of demand and employment,” said Kuria Kamau, fixed income and currency strategist at Stanbic Bank. “Firms were, however, unable to raise their output to meet all the…

Kenya’s foreign exchange reserves fell by $203 million to $8.986 billion as of August 26 from $9.189 billion as of August 19. According to the Central Bank of Kenya’s  (CBK) weekly statistical bulletin, the foreign currency reserves are sufficient to cover 5.49 months of imports, above the bank’s statutory requirement of at least 4 months of import cover.  The decline is attributed to external loans interest payments. The payments have maintained ample liquidity in the money markets with the average inter-bank rate standing at 3.36 per cent as of August 31 with the CBK mopping up Ksh 60 billion that…

Hong Kong-listed apparel brand Giordano has continued to expand its physical stores in Kenya. The firm which opened its first store in Kenya in 2020 says its new franchise store at Mombasa’s City Mall is the first outside Nairobi and its fourth. “Our previous three stores were all part of our local partners’ shop-in-shop offering, and we are both pleased and excited that our franchisee is sufficiently satisfied with Giordano’s performance to commit to a dedicated store for our brand,” said Mr Mark Loynd, executive director and head of overseas market development at Giordano International Limited. Its other outlets are…

Kenya’s annual inflation picked up to an 18-month high in August, largely driven by higher food and energy costs the statistics body said Tuesday. The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) said the rate accelerated to 6.55 per cent in August inflation from 6.44 per cent in July. “This was mainly driven by rise in prices of commodities under food and non-alcoholic beverages (10.67 per cent); transport (7.93 per cent); and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (5.07 per cent) between August 2020 and August 202,” KNBS said in a statement. In the period, prices of cabbages, spinach and…

TPS Eastern Africa (Serena) says it registered a KSh557.3million loss after tax for the half-year period ended 30th June 2021. However, this is relatively low from KSh 640.9 million reported in a similar period last year.  During the half-year period, its revenues from contracts with customers closed flat at KSh1.1 billion recorded last year. Its operating loss closed at KSh254.8 million. “Given the pent up demand in regional and international Travel outlook for the second half of year remains cautiously optimistic,” TPS Serena said in its H1 2021 Earnings release Wednesday. “Our sales and marketing campaigns will continue to target…

KCB Group has completed the acquisition of a 62.06 per cent stake in Banque Populaire du Rwanda Plc (BPR) from Atlas Mara Mauritius Limited and Arise B.V. “The combined history of BPR and KCB will take the Group to greater heights, giving us a stronger edge to play a bigger role in driving the financial inclusion and economic empowerment agenda in the East African region,” KCB Group CEO and MD Joshua Oigara said.  “This will increase our scale and improve our operating leverage by enabling us to deliver our existing retail and wholesale offerings to a wider base of customers…