Kenya’s inflation rate rose to 6.27 per cent in July compared to 5.7 per cent in June, the statistics body disclosed on Wednesday.
According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics(KNBS), in July 2019, food and non-alcoholic drinks’ index decreased by 1.04 per cent compared to a decline of 1.60 per cent in June 2019.
This decline was attributed mainly to decrease in price of potatoes, sukuma wiki (kales), tomatoes, cabbages and milk.
“The decline in price of these commodities outweighed the observed increase in the cost of other commodities like maize grain, maize flour-loose, beef-with bones, carrots and onions which increased by 0.52, 1.33, 0.23, 6.81 and 1.19 per cent, respectively, over the same period,” KNBS said in a statement.
Nevertheless, although the price of milk, cabbages and potatoes fell relative to June 2019, they remained well above the July 2018 prices.
During the same period, alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics index increased by 0.82 percent mainly due to increase in price of cigarettes.
Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels’ index, increased by 0.14 per cent as a result of increase in prices of electricity.
“In this regard, the cost of consumption of 50 KWh and 200 KWh of electricity increased by 0.62 per cent and 0.44 per cent, respectively, in July 2019,” KNBS noted.
Meanwhile, the transport index increased by 0.22 per cent on account of increase in pump price of petrol despite the decrease in the pump price of diesel, during the same period.
JK/abj/APA