Kenya Quarterly Balance of Payments Second Quarter, 2018

Balance of payments estimates for the second quarter, that is April to June 2018 are presented in Table 1. Current account deficit narrowed to KSh 85.8 billion, in the second quarter of 2018 from KSh 130.4 billion in the second quarter of 2017. The net surpluses in the service and secondary income accounts contributed significantly to the narrowing of the current account deficit. The current account deficit was primarily brought about by larger increases in merchandise imports relative to exports. Merchandise imports valued on free on board (fob) basis grew by 7.6 per cent to KSh 437.1 billion while merchandise exports increased by 6.3 per cent to KSh 159.6 billion in the second quarter of 2018.