ABSTRACT : The government of Kenya’s broad target under enhancing manufacturing is to increase the manufacturing share gross domestic product from 8.4% to 15% to create more jobs but the target remains a mirage owing to the poor performance of the manufacturing sector over years where for instance, sector performance declined to 3.5% in 2019 compared to 4.4% in 2018. The purpose of this study was to establish the influence of economic growth on financial performance of manufacturing firms registered at Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) pre and during Covid-19. The study was guided by efficient market hypothesis, purchasing power parity and arbitrage pricing theory. This study adopted descriptive research design grounded on panel data spanning 6 years from 2015 to 2020 with a target of 8 listed manufacturing firms. Panel data analysis was deployed to establish the influence of economic growth on financial performance. Economic growth was established to have a positive significant influence on financial performance with coefficients 0.358. However, intervening variable COVID-19 reduced influence of economic growth on financial performance by 0.185%. The study recommends formulation of prudent macroeconomic policies including bail outs during pandemics are geared towards enhancing performance of manufacturing firms as envisaged under the Big four agenda and Vision 2030 blue print.

Keywords –Covid-19, economic growth, financial Performance, manufacturing companies.