Kenya’s November inflation jumped to 5.6 percent from 4.9 percent in October due to a hike in food commodities and fuel prices according to the statistics body.
The food and non-alcoholic beverages index rose to 9.58% compared with October. The Kenyan National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) said the alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics index hit 7.53% from a month earlier.
“This was due to an increase in prices of some foodstuffs outweighing decrease recorded in respect of others,” KNBS director-general Zachary Mwangi said in the monthly statement.
source: tradingeconomics.com
The Central Bank of Kenya said overall inflation is expected to remain within the target range in the near term due to lower food prices following improved weather conditions, and lower electricity prices.
However, “The November excise tax adjustments in the Finance Act 2019 are expected to only have a marginal impact on inflation,” said the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) when it met on November 25, 2019, to review the outcome of its previous policy decisions and recent economic developments.
During the period, prices of potatoes (Irish), tomatoes, maize flour-sifted, green grams and mineral waters increased by 7.0, 6.1, 4.3, 3.9 and 2.4 per cent, respectively. However, during the same period, milk-fresh unpacketed, wheat flour and sugar prices dropped by 4.1, 0.6 and 0.5 per cent respectively.
A kilogramme of tomatoes also increased 43.1 per cent to retail at Sh95.78 compared to Sh66.93 last year.
The price of loose maize floor jumped 35.5 per cent year-on-year, selling at Sh56.26 from Sh41.51.
During the same period, Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’ Index, increased by 0.29 per cent. The Transport Index increased by 0.29 per cent mainly due to increase in pump prices of diesel and petrol.
