Kenya Cuts `08 Growth Estimate Again For To 2-2.5

Kenya's Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta said on Monday provisional estimates showed east Africa's largest economy grew between 2.0 and 2.5 percent in 2008 due to a post-election crisis and the global slowdown.

"Provisional estimates of gross domestic output show that growth may have edged around 2-2.5 percent in 2008," Kenyatta said in a speech in Nairobi.

The government had last year forecast between 4.5-6.0 percent growth as the impact of two months of political violence in January and February became clear, as well as the darkening international scenario.

It then lowered that again in January to 3.5-4.0 percent. [ID:nL6498644]

The new figures from Kenyatta, appointed last month, were in line with most analysts' predictions for 2008, which was a disastrous year for Kenya's economy after robust growth in previous years.

"This good economic story was in 2008 interrupted largely by our own misadventure," Kenyatta said.

"The post-election violence affected hard the agriculture and transport sectors, which in turn impacted adversely on the other sectors of the economy. In addition, other external developments -- drought, exceptionally high oil prices, and the meltdown of the world economy associated with the global financial crisis -- caused even more damage to the economy."

Growth was 7.0 percent in 2007.

A Reuters poll of analysts last month predicted, on average, just over 4 percent growth for Kenya in 2009.