Nairobi, Feb. 1 -- Private sector credit growth rose to a six month high of 13.2 percent in November 2023, aided by higher lending to the real estate, financial services, agriculture and manufacturing segments, despite the rising stock of bad loans in the banking sector.

Latest data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) on domestic credit shows that banks expanded their lending to the private sector by Sh39.6 billion between October and November, to Sh3.85 trillion. On a year-on-year basis, the volume of loans to the private sector rose by Sh449 billion.

The highest growth in new loans in relative terms in the year to November 2023 was seen in the financial services sector, whose stock of outstanding loans rose by 39 percent to Sh160.4 b...