{"id":22036,"date":"2026-01-06T08:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T06:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/kenyas-private-sector-ends-2025-on-a-strong-note-pmi-shows\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:33:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:33:07","slug":"kenyas-private-sector-ends-2025-on-a-strong-note-pmi-shows","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/kenyas-private-sector-ends-2025-on-a-strong-note-pmi-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya&#8217;s private sector ends 2025 on a strong note, PMI shows"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Kenya&#8217;s private sector economy maintained solid growth in December, driven by robust customer demand and increased business activity, the Stanbic Bank Kenya Purchasing Managers&#8217; Index (PMI) showed on Tuesday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The headline PMI stood at 53.7 in December, down from 55.0 in November, indicating a continued expansion in business conditions.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Kenyan firms reported a marked rise in activity, sales, and purchases, with employment growth hitting its highest rate since November 2019.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;The Stanbic Bank Kenya PMI stayed in expansion territory, albeit slower this month, implying still strong demand conditions are driving new orders,&#8221; said Stanbic Bank Economist Christopher Legilisho.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Inflationary pressures reaccelerated from November&#8217;s low, with input prices rising due to increased tax burdens and higher fuel and materials costs.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>However, the overall rate of input price inflation remained softer than the long-run trend.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Firms increased their purchases and inventories to maintain competitiveness and facilitate faster deliveries.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Supplier delivery times improved significantly, reaching their best level since September 2021.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Business expectations for 2026 remained positive, buoyed by plans for investment, diversification, and increased advertising.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Overall, this suggests that we could see higher inflation in the coming months from improving consumer demand as firms become more confident,&#8221; Legilisho added.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The survey highlighted that while output prices rose modestly, wage costs saw only a fractional increase, pointing to potential inflationary pressures ahead.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14567,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,44],"class_list":["post-22036","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":null,"news_description":"Kenya's private sector economy maintained solid growth","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25470,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22036\/revisions\/25470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=22036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}