Inflation ticks up marginally to 4.4% in August
Kenya’s inflation edged up to 4.4 percent in August from 4.3 percent in July, the latest data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows.
The rise in inflation was attributable to the uptick in costs across transport, rent, water, and energy segments. “Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages Index increased by 5.3 percent in the last 12 months,” a statement by KNBS states in part.
KNBS added that the transport index increased by 3.9 percent while the cost of house rent, water, electricity, gas, and other Fuels Index went up by 4.2 per cent in the last one year.
During the month under review, travelers using public service transport heading to Kisumu from Mombasa experienced a 25 percent increase in fares on a one-way ticket compared to the charges paid in July.
According to KNBS statistics, some of the food products whose costs went up significantly were potatoes where a kilo of the staple surged by 7.1 percent compared to market prices reported in July.
At the same time, the cost of a kilo of oranges increased by 3.2 percent, while a similar quantity of mangoes increased by 2.6 percent compared to the prices paid by consumers in the previous month.
On the flip side, onion prices registered a dip, with buyers reporting 5.6 percent decrease in prices compared to July 2024. Other products whose prices cooled during the month were carrots by 3 percent, sugar by 3.8 percent, and tomatoes by 12 percent largely due to favourable weather that has boosted production.
Additionally, the cost of wheat flour continued to decline with August with market prices being 1.8 percent less compared to the previous month.
Read also: Kenya’s inflation cools to lowest level in four years
KNBS reported that among non-food items, cigarettes experienced the highest price increase in August, with smokers paying 14.5 percent more for a packet compared to the previous month.
The government targets an inflation rate of between 2.5 percent and 7.5 percent in the medium term.
In August, the Central Bank of Kenya’s Monetary Policy Committee lowered the benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points, noting that there was room to gradually ease the key policy stance because inflation had hit the midpoint target range.
CBK’s update for the week ending August 30 states that global inflation concerns have eased, with notable declines observed in key economies.
“In August, both Germany and France saw their headline inflation rates drop to 1.9 percent, down from 2.3 percent in July. The US dollar index weakened by 0.2 percent against a basket of major currencies during the week ending August 29,” CBK noted.
The regulator, however, observed that international oil prices increased during the week ending August 29, largely due to Libya’s oil production outage, which outweighed global demand concerns.
