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"content": "I say so because I know there are some policy issues that we have been able to put in place that have got far-reaching implications to what we do here in the House and especially, as we serve the people of Kenya and, if possible, we can move together. First of all, I take this opportunity to thank you for according our Committee the right environment to work in the last two weeks to come up with this Report that we are debating today. I wish to thank all members of the 20 departmental committees led by their chairpersons. I can see a majority of them are here today, including Hon. Murugara, Hon. KJ, Hon. Kangogo and Hon. Mutunga, representing all the others. They have been sitting long hours for the last two weeks to make the recommendations that they did. I could have mentioned them by name because they are all my friends, but time is limited. I want them to feel appreciated. The Budget and Appropriations Committee (BAC) would never have done this within that short time without the kind of co-operation that we got from the chairpersons of departmental committees and their members. I also wish to thank members of the BAC, a majority of whom took leave from their homes for the last two weeks. They have been working day and night so that we can deliver to our country the right Budget Policy Statement (BPS), especially by setting ceilings that will lead to accelerated economic growth. I thank the Parliamentary Budget Office led by Dr. Masinde, which falls under you, Hon. Speaker, as our Head here in Parliament, for being very meticulous. We were here last year and made the same kind of report. It is important that I apprise my colleagues on the leaps we have taken forward. In the last financial year, we made the main Budget which we later revised. All the good policies that are made in this House are made by these Members of Parliament. As the Budget and Appropriations Committee, our work is basically to compile a report. The power is in this House. Through the wisdom of our colleagues, the country’s GDP grew by 5.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2023. In the second quarter of 2023, it grew by 5.5 per cent, and in the third quarter by 5.9 per cent GDP. We are still compiling the figures for the entire year, but it is projected that the country’s GDP in 2023 grew by 5.6 per cent, which makes Kenya the 28th fastest-growing economy in the world. In 2023, the economy of Kenya grew faster than the economy of China. The Kenyan economy grew by many multiples in 2023 compared to the economy of the United States of America. The Kenyan economy grew not just by our standards as released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), but also by the data released by international organisations and Bretton Woods organisations including IMF and World Bank. Therefore, I thank this House for the good policies that we have put in place leading to accelerated economic growth. As you know, I do not have the capacity to generate data. My work is just to lift and report. The data I am reporting is the data presented to us even by international organisations. There are other parameters which we use to determine where the economy is headed. One, as I have said, is GDP. The other parameter that is very important for us to note is our markets. There is the commodity market, the exchange rate market, and the money market. All those are determined by the fiscal policies that we put in place alongside the monetary policies. I can report to this House that in the money markets, we have seen increased interest rates. It is a tool we have been using as a country to control the other markets, namely, the exchange rate and the commodities markets. In the commodities market, we measure the trends of the prices using what we call inflation. In regards to inflation, we segment it into three categories: food inflation, fuel inflation and non-fuel or core inflation. In total, in January, inflation in Kenya came down from year to year to 6.9 per cent. In February, inflation climbed down to 6.3 per cent, which is within our targets as a country. Our target as a country is 5 per cent and a band of 2.5 per cent either way, that is, plus or minus. Therefore, at 6.3 per cent, we are doing fairly well. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor"
}