Kenya’s inflation rate dropped to 5 percent in August compared to 6.27 per cent in July, the statistics body has disclosed.
According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), food and non-alcoholic drinks’ index decreased by 1.89 per cent following a decline of 1.04 per cent that was recorded in July 2019.
The decline was mainly attributed to favourable weather conditions and follows a trend that has been observed over the last five months.
“The prices of significant food items including ‘sukuma wiki’ (kales), potatoes, cabbages, carrots, tomatoes and maize grain loose decreased by 8.01, 7.81, 6.78, 6.01, 4.89 and 2.80 per cent, respectively,” KNBS noted.
“Decrease in prices of these commodities outweighed observed increase in the cost of other food stuffs, thereby causing a decrease in the food index,” KNBS added.
During the same period, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels’ index, decreased by 0.10 per cent.
The transport index decreased by 0.03 per cent mainly due to the reduction in pump prices of diesel and petrol by 3.14 and 2.45 per cent respectively.
JK/abj/APA