Kenya's economic growth slowed to 5.5 percent in the third quarter due to a sharp drop in tourism following attacks in the country, but benefited from robust construction and agriculture sectors, data showed on Tuesday. The economy remains on course to grow 5.3-5.5 percent this year as forecast by the government.
Third-quarter growth eased from 5.8 percent in the second quarter and was down from a revised 6.2 percent in the third quarter of last year. The revision came after a rebasing of the economy last month that put gross domestic product about 25 percent higher from previous estimates. The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement that construction grew 11 percent in July-September from a year ago while financial services expanded 9.9 percent and agriculture grew by 6.2 percent.
Tourism contracted by 14.6 percent, affected this year by a string of deadly attacks on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast and elsewhere, which were blamed on Islamist militants and prompted some Western countries to warn against travel to the country. Finance Minister Henry Rotich said this month that infrastructure spending would help lift economic growth to about 6.5 percent in 2015, against a previous forecast of 6.4 percent, and to 7 percent in 2017.