I am interested in finding out how many jobs were created in the stated year

Kenya finance minister says good time to revisit commercial rate caps
Kenya’s finance minister said on Thursday that it was a good time to revisit a cap on commercial lending rates, blamed by the International Monetary Fund for sluggish credit growth to the private sector.

Reacting to public complaints about high lending rates in Kenya, the government capped bank interest rates at four percentage points above the benchmark central bank rate in 2016. It also set a minimum deposit rate of 70 percent of the policy rate, which stands at 10 percent.

The rate caps forced banks to stop lending to customers who are perceived as risky. Bank executives blame the caps for sluggish private sector credit growth, which slowed to 2.4 percent in the year to December. The central bank says the ideal rate is 12-15 percent.

“It is a good time for stakeholders to revisit this issue,” said Finance Minister Henry Rotich. “We are working on a package of reforms which if we discuss we will get a way forward,” he added without giving details.

Rotich’s comments at a press conference come a week after the chair of the Kenyan parliament’s influential budget committee said there was a case for altering a cap on commercial lending rates.

The central bank opposed the caps before they were imposed and last month the International Monetary Fund asked the government to remove them

https://af.reuters.com/a...africaTech/idAFL8N1QB5KP

Damage to SME due to rate cap is massive. Won't be much credit demand even if it's reviewed. Hard to imagine it had to take IMF intervention for GoK to see the obvious.

Reviewing the rate cap won't solve much. I don't expect credit growth to rally much after the anticipated repeal for the simple reason that credit started shrinking in July 2015 - more than a year before the rate cap. Systemic risk won't dissipate merely coz of a piece of legislation. Liquidity preference will still be the default setting for banks in addition the govt is past a point of no return when it comes to deficit management aka it must continue its borrowing spree locally to stay afloat.

KE managed to squeeze its eurobond 2.0 before the March window slammed shut beyond which it would have been an extremely costly affair. External funding will be a very tricky endeavour going forward with international interest rates inching higher by the day. As for the NSE, I think it will continue its bearish structure in April as the bull window comes to a close by end of this month once the hype around the rate cap repeal dies down. Will be interesting to see where it finally bottoms out when the dust settles by late 2019, my bet is sub 2000.

The KE economy's waterloo seems slated for H2 2018. Increased taxes, more crowding out by govt, retrenchments in the public sector, stalling of GoK projects, downgrade of KE (pulls down banks with it especially banks with an inordinate exposure to govt dealings like KCB) etc. However, if the KES loses ground early, the show will start soon enough. Replay of the 1990's in the making.

Banks still have to contend with rising NPL's and IFRS9 and that will take some time to flush out and stabilize their houses.

Overly simplistic view. IMF's record of managing any economy(KE included) is wanting. Their main interest is having monies owed to the repaid by hook or crook at a premium and patronizing countries/leaders. The spade work will have to be done by KE itself just like the turn-around overseen by Kibaki.