NAIROBI (Reuters) –- Kenya’s economy grew 6.9 percent in the first nine months of 2007 after 5.8 percent in the same period of 2006, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics estimated.

“All sectors of the economy recorded impressive growth in the third quarter of 2007 with high growth being witnessed in hotels and restaurants, construction, electricity and water, manufacturing, financial intermediation and agriculture,” a report by the statistics body said in an undated document obtained by Reuters on Friday.
But the bureau said GDP growth in the third quarter of 2007 dropped to 6.9 percent compared with 7.5 percent in the same period of 2006.
The government has estimated in the past that overall growth in 2007 stood at 6.9-7.0 percent compared to 6.1 in 2006.
An ongoing post-election crisis that has killed 850 people and displaced another 300,000 in about a month threatens to hurt growth, analysts say.
President Mwai Kibaki instituted widely praised economic reforms when he took power in 2002. Growth has shot up from 0.6 percent since then to an average 5 percent in the past five years.
But his disputed re-election in December caused riots and ethnic violence, hurting trade and pushing up prices.
Inflation was at 18.2 percent in January from 12 percent in December, the bureau said on Friday.