Kenya Quarterly Balance of Payment and International Trade Report First Quarter, 2026

Abstract

The current account balance widened from a deficit of KSh 70.0 billion in the first quarter of 2025 to a deficit of KSh 120.9 billion in the first quarter of 2026 as highlighted in Table 1. This partly resulted from a 4.5 per cent increase in imports of goods, coupled with a 34.8 per cent increase in service expenditures in the first quarter of 2026. Receipts from exports of merchandise goods registered a 6.2 per cent decline to KSh 385.6 billion uring the same period. The surplus in the services account contracted by 26.7 per cent to KSh 56.2 billion during the review period. This was partly attributable to an increase in expenditure on other business services which doubled in the first quarter of 2026. Telecommunication and transportation services recorded marginal declines in net exports during the review period. On the contrary, a 15.4 per cent increase in net travel receipts was recorded during the same period. Exports of Government goods and services; and financial services outpaced imports of these services, to record net increases during the period under review.