Kenyan firms on Monday, 6 January, expressed a lack of confidence in economic growth for 2025, despite prevailing circumstances indicating projected growth for this year.
This is according to the latest Stanbic Bank Kenya Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) December report, which indicated marginal improvement in Kenya's private sector despite heightened inflationary pressures towards the end of 2024.
The firms predicted low output growth in 2025 in a survey where it emerged that confidence in economic growth was at its second lowest in the survey's history. "Optimism for higher activity in the next 12 months dropped to its second-lowest in the series history," the report revealed. A photo of a man at a manufacturing company Photo Alliance Employment Services Of the surveyed firms, a small section voiced optimism about increased growth but attributed the potential growth to internal business measures rather than macroeconomic strategies. "Only 5% of surveyed firms expect output to rise, with these companies basing their optimism on planned business expansion and new products and services," the report indicated.
This outlook affected employment opportunities.
