- Years between 1990-94 recorded the lowest average rate of 2.2 per cent.
- Period between 2005-09 recorded the highest rate at 6.3 per cent, followed by 2010-14 at 5.9 per cent.
Economic growth prospects for developing economies such as Kenya, for the first four years of the 2020s have proved to be the weakest in almost 30 years.
The World Bank in its January economic prospect report says the average growth rate for developing countries for the period under review stands at 3.4 per cent, a level last witnessed in the nineties.
"Years between 1990-94 recorded the lowest average rate of 2.2 per cent," the report reads.
On the other hand, years between 2005-09 recorded the highest rate at 6.3 per cent, followed by 2010-14 at 5.9 per cent.
Periods between 2015-19, 2000-04 and 1995-98 recorded average growth rates of 4.4, 5.5 and 3.8 per cent, respectively.
Last year, World Bank downgraded Kenya’s economy to grow by an average five per cent, as global and domestic shocks continued to impact on economies.
It however noted that the growth prospect was expected to pick to 5.3 per cent this year.
Concurring the weakest growth projection, IMF in its revised outlook projection in October last year, cut Kenya's economic growth prospects to 5.0 per cent, down from April’s projection of 5.3 per cent.
Despite being an upward projection from the previous year’s 4.8 per cent, the lender attributed the downgrade to Covid-19 effects, which the country is still recovering from.
Growth of the entire sub-Saharan Africa region was also projected to decline to 3.3 per cent in 2023, down from 4.0 per cent in 2022.
At the same time, IMF projected global growth to slow to 2.9 per cent last year, down from 3.5 per cent in 2022.
The World Bank now reiterates the aforementioned, saying global growth last year, was slowing sharply in the face of elevated inflation, higher interest rates, reduced investment and supply disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The global economy was projected to grow by 1.7 per cent in 2023 and 2.7 per cent in 2024, with the sharp downturn in growth expected to be widespread," World Bank says in part.
"Forecasts in 2023 were revised down for 95 per cent of advanced economies and nearly 70 per cent of emerging market and developing economies.”
At current trends, the lender adds that the maximum long-term rate at which the global economy can grow without sparking inflation, is expected to fall to a three-decade low over the remainder of the 2020s.
“This is because most of the forces that have powered prosperity since the early 1990s have weakened, including a growing working-age population,” says the report.