After a five-month delay, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) is set to release the country’s economic survey report.
The economic survey was meant to reveal the full extent of damage inflicted on the economy and the jobs market during the COVID-19 lockdown.
According to KNBS Director General Macdonald Obudho, the release of the official data of the country’s socio-economic performance was delayed after three agencies including the National Treasury, Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) intervened and demanded the survey be reviewed afresh.
Obudho was appearing before the Public Investment Committee (PIC) in response to concerns raised by Garissa Town MP Aden Duale who said KNBS breached provisions of the Statistics Act and the Constitution by either delaying or refusing to release the reports.
In May, Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor, Dr. Patrick Njoroge also expressed concerns over the quality of some of the data that had previously been released by KNBS.
Public Investment Committee (PIC) chairman Abdulswamad Nassir sought to know why the report was delayed given its importance to the country in terms of planning.
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KNBS director-general Macdonald Obudho on Monday said the official statistics including the Annual Economic Survey 2021, Leading Economic Indicators report, the Quarterly Gross Domestic Product (QGDP) report, quarterly jobs report and other official statistics will be released on September 9, 2021.
He added that stakeholders including the World Bank, IMF, KRA, CBK and KIPPRA have given the new findings a clean bill of health and the Economic Survey 2021 will be released on Wednesday.
Ideally, the report is released in late April or early May of every year. But for this yeear’s, it was meant to capture economic conditions when Kenya imposed restrictions like travel ban, night curfew, closure of schools and night clubs to curb coronavirus.
In 2020, the report for second quarter was released on October 15 as opposed to the typical September 30, while that for third quarter was published January 27, this year, as opposed to December 31st.
