Leading Economic Indicators - March 2007

The Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) for March 2007 is a monthly publication of the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics that highlights trends in consumer price indices and inflation, interest rates, exchange rates, international trade, agriculture, energy, manufacturing, building and construction, tourism and transport. Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 1.3 per cent from 220.7 points in January 2007 to 223.6 points in February 2007. Month-on-month overall inflation rate decelerated from 9.7 per cent in January 2007 to 6.8 per cent in February 2007. The Kenyan Shilling appreciated against the US Dollar, Sterling Pound, South African Rand and Tanzanian shilling while weakening against the Euro, Japanese Yen and Ugandan Shilling in February 2007. The average yield rate for the 91-day Treasury bills, which is a benchmark for the general trend of interest rates, rose marginally by 0.22 percentage points from 6.0 per cent in January 2007 to 6.22 per cent in February 2007.