Kenya’s private sector activity fell in April to 49.5, hurt by rising consumer inflation and supply shortfalls for some goods.
The S&P Global Kenya Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dropped to 49.5 from 50.5 a month earlier.
Stanbic Bank’s PMI of 50.0 mark separates growth in activity from contractions.
“Kenyan companies saw a renewed deterioration in business conditions in April, as PMI survey data signalled a decrease in customer demand in response to rising consumer prices and living costs,” said S&P.
“A solid fall in output was also registered as firms experienced supply shortfalls for a number of items and a near-record rise in input prices.”
Inflation rose to 6.47 percent in April from 5.56 percent in March earlier.
The survey said due to the higher inflation, customer demand had in turn slowed.
“Domestic demand fell, driven by reduced client spending following significant increases in food and fuel prices,” Kuria Kamau, Fixed Income and Currency Strategist at Stanbic Bank, said.
However, employment increased to a lesser degree than the previous month.
In April, Kenya’s PMI shows deterioration in business conditions, which was the deepest since April last year, hit by a fall in new order volumes.
