JOHANNESBURG: East Africa’s three biggest economies will remain resilient this year and next, despite lackluster demand from their traditional trading partners in the euro zone, a Reuters poll has found.

Moderate inflation in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania — plus booming oil and gas exploration for the latter two — will also make room for lower interest rates to underpin growth.

“We think the east African countries ... are likely to be among the region’s best performers over the next two years owing to increasing investment into natural resource sectors,” said Shilan Shah of London-based Capital Economics.

Other countries in East Africa with huge natural resource potential include Rwanda and Mozambique.

Tanzania is seen growing 7.0 percent this year, up from a median estimate of 6.8 percent in 2012, while Uganda’s economy is set to expand 5.3 percent from 3.8 percent.

The poll, taken in the past week, suggested Kenya’s economy will grow 5.5 percent, above last year’s 4.3 percent, in line with the previous survey.

In a similar poll taken in January, a boom in oil and gas investment in east Africa promised to sustain robust economic growth for Uganda and Tanzania, even though corruption and power failures still hindered the economies.

“Oil sector investment should bolster GDP growth over 2013 and 2014,” said IHS Global Insight’s economist Mark Bohlund about Uganda.

“The evolving natural gas story has given legs to Tanzania’s high GDP growth rate, in spite of the headwinds for the mining sector, the largest driver of foreign direct investment so far,” Bohlund added.

Norway’s Statoil announced last month that it and BG were going ahead with plans to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Tanzania after Statoil made its third gas discovery in the region in a year.

BG has said it sees potential for an LNG project from its Tanzania finds, but has not named a partner.

The region’s second and third biggest economies, Tanzania and Uganda, will see the largest moderation in consumer inflation, falling into single digits from previous annual averages in the high teens. In Kenya it is seen easing further to 5.4 percent.

High food and energy prices sent inflation in the three countries surging into double digits in 2011, piling pressure on the local currencies and forcing a sharp tightening of monetary policy.

But while Tanzania’s inflation slowed to 9.8 percent in March its central bank is still intervening in currency markets to fight a depreciation of the shilling. Kenya’s central bank has been undertaking similar operations to support its currency.

Kenya’s shilling has gained almost 3 percent since the tightly fought March 4 Presidential election passed off peacefully, in contrast to the previous poll five years ago when a disputed outcome led to violence that brought the economy to its knees.

The survey also still showed large current account deficits, suggesting the downturn in the European economy, a traditional export destination but mired in recession, may not be subduing growth as much as had been feared.

Even the tiny Indian Ocean island economy of Mauritius, known for white sandy beaches and azure waters that lure European holiday makers, is expected to grow 3.7 percent this year from 3.3 percent last, and then grow 4.1 percent in 2014.

“The government’s diversification policies and strong performance in financial services (will support growth),” said Bjorn van Wees, at The Economist Intelligence Unit.

He said that business outsourcing and luxury real estate, as well as a slight uptick in tourism, would support growth but inflation would rise as a result of higher administered prices such as fuel, rice, flour as well as salary increases in the public sector.