Kenya Quarterly Balance of Payment and International Trade Report First Quarter 2024

The current account balance widened from KSh 110.5 billion during the first quarter of 2023 to KSh 131.2 billion during the first quarter of 2024 as highlighted in Table 1. This represents an 18.8 per cent increase during the period under review. Favourable export earnings from tea and horticultural commodities resulted to a 28.0 per cent increase in merchandise exports during the first quarter of 2024 to KSh 298.4 billion. However, this was not sufficient to reduce the trade deficit which was exacerbated by a 17.9 per cent increase in merchandise imports on f.o.b basis to KSh 640.0 billion in the first quarter of 2024. The increase in the import bill was largely attributable to increased expenditure on leading import commodities of petroleum and industrial machinery, particularly air transport equipment.