Kenyan Remittances Rose 8.7% in July, Central Bank Says

y Eric Ombok

Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Kenyans living abroad sent home $50.4 million in July, an increase of 8.7 percent, compared with $46.3 million a month earlier, the Central Bank of Kenya said on its website late yesterday.

Total remittance inflows for the period January to July 2009 declined 8.4 percent to $342.3 million compared with $373.3 million in a similar period in 2008, the Central Bank said.

“The surge in 2008 remittance inflows was attributed to the Safaricom IPO and post-election violence, which attracted large funds for investment and consumption smoothing respectively,” it said.

The dominant source of inflows to Kenya is North America which accounts for over 50 percent of total remittances, the bank said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Ombok in Nairobi at eombok@bloomberg.net

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