Inflation falls to 5pc in April as prices drop

A drop in the cost of electricity, transport, and some food items brought inflation further down to 5.0 per cent in April, new data shows.

According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (Knbs), a drop in the prices of sugar, maize flour, and cooking oil contributed to the drop in the cost of living compared to March.

The prices of other food items like onions, tomatoes, and potatoes, however, went up during the period. The inflation rate stood at 5.7 per cent in March and 6.3 in February. The government’s preferred range of inflation is 5.0 per cent +/- 2.5 per cent.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) shows that electricity, which is bundled together with housing, water, gas and other fuels, had the highest change at 1.3 per cent. Food and non-alcoholic beverages dropped by 0.1 per cent, while transport fell by 0.3 per cent. Food and nonalcoholic beverages carry the most weight in the basket of goods and services Knbs uses to calculate inflation at 32.9 per cent followed by electricity, housing, water, gas and other fuels at 14.6 per cent.

“The housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels index dropped by 1.3 per cent between March 2024 and April 2024 mainly due to a decline in the price of kerosene by 9.7 per cent,” said Knbs Director General MacDonald Obudho in a statement. A drop in the prices of diesel and petrol within the period also saw a drop in the transport index.

“This was mainly due to a drop in prices of petrol and diesel by 2.7 per cent and 5.2 per cent respectively,” said Mr Obudho. During the period, a kilo of sugar dropped from Sh189 to Sh173, while a 2kg packet of fortified maize flour reduced to Sh159 from Sh163 the previous month. The price of a kilo of Irish potatoes, however, went up from Sh109 to Sh111; a kilo of tomatoes from Sh87 to Sh91 and that of onions sustained its climb from Sh167 to Sh177.

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“The price of sugar, maize grain loose, fortified maize flour and maize flour loose dropped by 8, 3.6 and 2.8 per cent, respectively. During the same period, however, prices of onions-leeks and bulbs, tomatoes and oranges increased by 5.8, 4.3 and 4.0 per cent respectively,” he said.